, 1754: Caricature of Handel playing a chamber organ. {{quote box|align=left|width=30%|quote= One may say that Händel, in particular, is not easily surpassed by anyone in organ playing, unless it be by
Bach in Leipzig. Handel's six organ concertos were published in 1738 by
John Walsh as the composer's Opus 4. The four concertos HWV 290–293 had been written to be played in the intervals of performances of his oratorios
Esther,
Deborah and
Athalia in March and April 1735 in the
newly opened theatre of
John Rich in
Covent Garden; the other two concertos HWV 289 and 294 served the same purpose in February and March of the following year for performances at the same venue of
Alexander's Feast HWV 75, Handel's setting of
John Dryden's ode. The performances of
Esther and
Deborah were revivals, while
Athalia was a reworking for its first London performance of a work first heard in Oxford in the summer of 1733. The violinist
Festing and the composer
Arne reported to the
musicologist Charles Burney that Handel had included organ solos in the Oxford performances: he had "opened the organ in such a manner as astonished every hearer" and "neither themselves, nor any one of their acquaintance, had ever before heard such extempore, or such premeditated playing, on that or any other instrument." Handel's prowess as an organist had already been demonstrated in
Rome in 1707 in a contest with the composer
Domenico Scarlatti, when his playing on the organ was rated higher than Scarlatti's playing on the harpsichord; his reputation as a great organist had already been established during his one-year position as cathedral organist in
Halle in 1702. Handel's organ concertos thus have a special place in his oeuvre. They paved the way for
Mozart and
Beethoven, who like Handel achieved fame in their lifetimes as composers and performers of their own concertos. In the
sinfonias of some of his
cantatas,
Johann Sebastian Bach had already introduced concerto movements for organ and orchestra. However, Bach's organs in both
Weimar and
Leipzig were large organs with double keyboards and pedals, unlike the chamber organs used mostly in a continuo role. Bach's organ writing in the
sinfonias lacks the complexity of his writing for solo organ; it is in two parts, with the bass line doubling the
continuo. The small English chamber organs at Handel's disposal, with a single keyboard and no pedals, was situated directly within the orchestra, making possible a unique form of concerto close to
chamber music. The precise reasons why Handel introduced this new musical form, the concerto for
chamber organ and orchestra, have been discussed in detail by . He concludes that Handel, faced by financial difficulties in mounting Italian opera, exacerbated by a newly established opera company in fierce competition for an audience, decided to showcase himself as a virtuoso composer-performer, thus providing a rival attraction to the celebrated
castrato Farinelli, the glittering star of his competitors.
Handel's chamber organs , originally built by Thomas Parker and Richard Bridge to specifications by Handel from 1749 for the country home of
Charles Jennens at
Gopsall Handel had begun to introduce the chamber organ into his oratorios in 1732 in order to reinforce the voices in the chorus. The oratorios
Esther and
Deborah include elaborate choruses drawn from his earlier
Coronation Anthems. Deborah is scored for two harpsichords and two organs, one for each choir in the double chorus. Two solo arias in Deborah in which the organ doubles a solo
transverse flute suggest organ-stops which could produce a soft timbre. Handel's instruments he used were most likely the single keyboard portable chamber organs with four stops constructed by
John Snetzler, the leading organbuilder in London. When Handel moved his company from the King's Theatre to the newly built theatre in Covent Garden, in autumn 1734, organs appeared explicitly for the first time in his operas. The danced prologue Terpischore HWV 8b performed there contains sumptuous scoring for alto recorders, violins, violas and pizzicato cellos with the bass and treble lines doubled by organs; Handel marked the score, "
Les orgues doucement, e la Teorbe". In March 1735 the
London Daily Post and General Advertiser announced that Handel had decided to incorporate in later performances of Deborah
"a large new Organ, which is remarkable for the Variety of Curious Stops, being a new Invention, and a great Improvement of that Instrument." Although the maker of that instrument or its successors remains unknown, the dynamic markings in the detailed organ parts for
Alexander's Feast suggest a single manual organ with six stops rather than four. Whoever the organbuilder, Handel added a codicil to his will in 1757 bequeathing to John Rich his
"Great Organ which stands at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden." Rivalry between companies ,
Francesca Cuzzoni and
Gaetano Berenstadt (l. to r.) in Handel's opera
Flavio, 1723 , 1732: Choral rehearsal for the oratorio
Judith by
Willem de Fesch In the 1730s London theatre audiences were constantly clamouring for novelty and displays of
virtuosity on the musical stage. Handel's Italian opera company had to compete with the full range of spoken drama as well as popular musical entertainment, including English
ballad operas such as the highly successful
Beggar's Opera and the
pantomimes and
burlesques produced by John Rich. Between 1732 and 1733 the composer
Thomas Arne with his son and
John Frederick Lampe briefly ran an English opera company devoted to full-length operas in the
English language. Of these entertainments, Italian opera demanded the highest expenditure and posed the highest risks. Between 1733 and 1737 these financial difficulties were brought to a head by the establishment of a new rival Italian opera company, the
Opera of the Nobility, set up ruthlessly to court Handel's potential audience. Formed by members of the disbanded
Royal Academy of Music, to which Handel had previously belonged, it succeeded in poaching almost all of his principal singers, including the celebrated
castrato Senesino and the bass singer
Antonio Montagnana. Whereas Handel's company was supported by the king
George II and his wife, the Opera of the Nobility had the patronage of their son
Frederick, Prince of Wales, an open sign of deep-seated disagreements within the royal family. It was during the second season of rivalry in 1734–1735, when competition between the two companies had become fiercest, that Handel first introduced his organ concertos. By that stage the Opera of the Nobility had assembled a star-studded cast which now additionally included the castrato
Farinelli and the soprano
Francesca Cuzzoni. Performances of
Hasse's Venetian opera
Artaserse played to packed houses and Farinelli became the toast of the town. Later in the season they even revived one of Handel's own operas
Ottone, albeit in a heavily
bowdlerised form, again with Farinelli as a guaranteed audience drawer. Artaserse and other operas including
Porpora's new opera
Polifemo, a precursor of Handel's pastoral masque
Acis and Galatea, vied for the audience of Handel's three new works – the operas
Ariodante and
Alcina, part of the trilogy based on
Ariosto's romantic epic
Orlando Furioso, and the oratorio
Athalia.
Residency at Covent Garden : "Rich's Glory", the first theatre in
Covent Garden built in 1732 by
John Rich Handel's opera company was obliged to leave the
King's Theatre after the 1733–1734 season, because of a lack of support from former directors of the
Royal Academy of Music. In July 1734 his company took up residency in the Theatre Royal in
Covent Garden, opened two years previously by
John Rich. Handel was engaged to give two performances every week, usually on Wednesday and Saturday, during the season. During the first season 1734–1735 there were three important features of the company's artistic activities: • a commitment to perform only music by Handel to satisfy his supporters rather than the fickle public who demanded
pasticci of the latest Italian composers; • full use of the resident chorus and dance company in Covent Garden, including the dancer
Marie Sallé from the
Paris Opera; • an extended 6 week season of biblical oratorios building on the success of previous seasons. All performances of the first season were advertised in the local newspapers as "By His Majesty's Command" or "By Her Majesty's Command" when the King was absent. The King and Queen attended a large number of performances, essentially snubbing the Opera of the Nobility supported by their son. In November and December 1734, Handel presented various opera revivals and a newly composed opera-ballet
Terpsichore. However the combination of dance and
opera seria was not sufficient to attract the opera going public. In January 1735
Ariodante opened, but, despite the quality of the music and a visible royal presence, was no more successful. It was in March that Handel started his first oratorio season, featuring the organ concertos HWV 290–293. The timing of the performances avoided conflicts with events in other London theatres and the local papers advertised the "new Concertos on the Organ." In spite of this his general popularity at that particular time was in such a state of decline, that even his organ concertos were '' "far from bringing him crowded audiences: tho' there were no publick Entertainments on those Evenings." '' Handel fared better with his new opera
Alcina which had an extended run, again with royal approval and attendance. There was, however, public disapproval of Marie Sallé's performance
en travesti as
Cupid in the ballet sections.
The Farinelli phenomenon – Bartolomeo Nazari 1734 , Plate 2 of
A Rake's Progress. Detail. 1735. The scrap of paper shows
Farinelli on a raised dais, behind a burning altar. Women offer up their hearts under a banner bearing the legend.
One God, One Farinelli. Farinelli's impact on London opera-goers was without precedent: his singing gave rise to wild adulation verging on hysteria.
Horace Walpole recorded that Lady Rich (1692–1773) expressed her rapture in 1735 with the words,
"One God, One Farinelli." Alexander's Feast : Sculpture of Handel for
Vauxhall Gardens. 1738,
Victoria and Albert Museum. Under Handel's left arm is a leather bound copy of
Alexander's Feast. '', by Francis Kyte (1742);
National Portrait Gallery, London Handel completed
Alexander's Feast in January 1736. A choral work in two parts, it was a setting of the
ode ''
Alexander's Feast, or the Power of Musick by John Dryden. It was first performed at Covent Garden on 19 February 1736 as a celebration of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of Music. In its original form it contained three concertos: a concerto in B flat major in 3 movements for "Harp, Lute, Lyrichord and other Instruments" HWV 294 for performance after the recitative Timotheus, plac'd on high'' in Part I; a concerto grosso in C major in 4 movements for oboes, bassoon and strings, now known as the "Concerto in Alexander's Feast" HWV 318, performed between Parts I and II; and an organ concerto HWV 289 in G minor and major in 4 movements for chamber organ, oboes, bassoon and strings performed after the chorus
Let old Timotheus yield the prize in Part II. There were 11 performances of the work in its first form: five in February and March 1736; and in 1737, 3 in March, 1 in early April and 2 in June. Meanwhile, he had produced Arminio and Giustino, completed Berenice, revived Partenope, and continued with Il Parnasso in Festa, Alexander's Feast, and the revised
The Triumph of Time and Truth which premiered on March 23. {{quote box|align=left|width=30%|quote= I was nearly an hour with Handel yesterday ... he is in no danger upon the whole but I fear or am rather too certain that he will lose a great part of his execution so as to prevent his ever playing any more concertos on the organ. In April Handel suffered a mild
stroke, or
rheumatic palsy, resulting in temporary paralysis in his right hand and arm. After brief signs of a recovery, he had a relapse in May, with an accompanying deterioration in his mental capacities. He had strong competition from
John Frederick Lampe;
The Dragon of Wantley was first performed at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket in London on May 16, 1737. It was a
parody of the Italian
opera seria. In Autumn 1737 the fatigued Handel reluctantly followed the advice of his physicians and went to take the cure in the
spa towns of
Royal Tunbridge Wells,
Aix-la-Chapelle (
Burtscheid) in September. On Christmas Eve Handel finished the score of Faramondo, but its composition was interrupted by that of the
Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline. On Boxing Day he began the composition of Serse, the only comic opera that Handel ever wrote and worked with
Elisabeth Duparc. The harp and organ concerto (HWV 294) and Alexander's Feast were published in 1738 by
John Walsh. Alexander's Feast was performed 25 times in Handel's lifetime and revised in 1739, 1742 and 1751, with the suppression of the two concertos Op. 4. For the final performances in 1753, Handel could not himself perform because of his
failing eyesight. The Countess of Shaftesbury relates that she saw "the great though unhappy Handel, dejected, wan and dark, sitting by, not playing the harpsichord." No one seems to have noticed hitherto that Handel's "borrowings" began in 1736 on a small scale, and became more frequent in 1737, after which they developed into a regular habit. ==Works==