IDAGIO | J. S. Bach: Weihnachts-Magnificat - G. F. Handel: Utrecht Te Deum 3149020952672

Featuring

Nuria Rial
Marie-Sophie Pollak
Alex Potter
Kieran Carrel
Roderick Williams
Justin Doyle

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
RIAS Kammerchor
Johann Sebastian Bach
George Frideric Handel

Did you know?

1/7

Composer Biography

Georg Friedrich Händel, a non-English composer who had only recently arrived in London, was surprisingly commissioned to write the Te Deum for the Peace of Utrecht.

Composition History

Johann Sebastian Bach, upon becoming Kantor of St Thomas's Church in Leipzig in 1723, had to compose a large-scale Magnificat for his first Christmas in the city, as per local tradition.

Compositional Technique

For his Magnificat, Bach inserted four short settings of popular Christmas hymns between movements of the standard Magnificat text to emphasize the Nativity season.

Composition History

Handel's Te Deum for the Peace of Utrecht was commissioned for a thanksgiving service in St Paul's Cathedral to celebrate Great Britain's favorable outcome in the War of the Spanish Succession.

Historical Context

The War of the Spanish Succession, which lasted over a decade, ended with the Peace of Utrecht in April 1713, establishing a new balance of power in Europe.

Compositional Technique

Bach's Magnificat features an unusually large ensemble, including a five-part choir and a grand orchestra with timpani, trumpets, flutes, oboes, and strings.

Compositional Technique

Handel's Te Deum in D major (HWV 278) was his first sacred composition in English and was stylistically influenced by Henry Purcell's Te Deum of 1694.