MESSIAH

GEORG FRIEDRICH HÄNDEL / arr. WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

Der Messias, oratorio HWV 56, KV 572

Jana Sibera soprano
Václava Krejčí Housková alto
Christoph Prégardien tenor
Lukáš Bařák basbaritone
Slovenský filharmonický sbor
choirmaster Jan Rozehnal
Filharmonie Brno
conductor Dennis Russell Davies

The total failure of his opera Deidamia convinced the 56-year old George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) that his long reign over the London music scene as opera composer and entrepreneur was definitely over. Financial difficulties and social embar rassment made him leave for Dublin, but before he went, over three weeks in August and September 1741 Handel wrote Messiah, perhaps his greatest work. The text, prepared by Charles Jennens, is not a standard oratorio libretto, compiled as it was exclusively from brief excerpts from Scripture – from the Psalms to Revelation.

The Dublin première of Messiah was a triumph; its acclaim reached London, so when Handel later returned he could again hold his head high. He continued to compose oratorios; after 15 more his position became unshakeable.

At the invitation of his patron, Gottfried van Swieten, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) revised Handel’s oratorio in 1789, adapting it to the German version of the libretto and adding more wind instruments, so that the original sound of the Baroque orchestra came closer to the Viennese taste; yet Mozart’s genius did not allow the work to lose its original spirit. On the contrary, he discovered a new beauty in it. Mozart’s version, Der Messias, was first heard on 6 March 1789 at the palace of Count Esterházy; the score was first printed only in 1803, a long time after Mozart’s death.

The concert can be purchased as a part of a full subscription at the Ticket office of Filharmonie Brno on Besední Street and online from 27 May 2024.
The concert will be sold separately from 17 June 2024.