Handel | "God Save the King!"
Saison
2026/2027
Sacred music celebrating royalty
"Le Concert Spirituel has made it a specialty to perform these grand musical architectures according to the rules in force during the 17th and 18th centuries. With this production, we want to perform the music of a royal coronation at Westminster, so that the audience can get an idea of the impact felt by listeners in 18th-century London." Hervé Niquet
Distribution
Le Concert Spirituel choir and orchestra
Hervé Niquet conductor
Program
Program (subject to change by date)
George Frideric Handel
DETTINGEN TE DEUM HW 283
Intermission
CORONATION ANTHEMS
Zadok the Priest HW 258
My Heart is Inditing HW 261
Let Thy Hand Be Strengthened HW 259
The King Shall Rejoice HW 260
Production
A Le Concert Spirituel production
Duration
1h45
with intermission
Photo credit
Le Concert Spirituel at the 2024 Midsummer Festival in Hardelot (c)Château d'Hardelot
Additional information
Concert sung in English
The long-standing tradition of musicians attached to princes or kings goes to show that music was for a long time an essential element in establishing political power.
Handel was no exception to this rule, and the Coronation Anthems, composed for the coronation of George II, just like the Dettingen Te Deum, which celebrates England's victory over the French army at Dettingen in 1743, were intended to bolster the power of the English crown.
In fact, both pieces in this concert fulfilled this role successfully, as rehearsals for the Coronation Anthems drew an unprecedented crowd of enthusiastic onlookers. To spark enthusiasm and wonder for the ruling power; that is the very characteristic that makes music so indispensable to princes. The Coronation Anthems and the Dettingen Te Deum appeal primarily to the listener's senses. By playing on energy, they seek to elicit a physical, unanimous, and enthusiastic response from the audience that could not be achieved by appealing to the intellect alone.
It is his own vision of these "spectacular" pieces that the founder of Le Concert Spirituel, drawing on his expertise in the Handel repertoire (his interpretation of Water Music & Music for the Royal Fireworks won an Edison Award and is regularly performed before thousands of spectators internationally, and his Messiah, released just recently on Alpha, was named “BBC Radio 3’s Record Review of the Week”), wishes to present today. The choir and orchestra of Le Concert Spirituel promise an exciting evening, starting with a bang thanks to spectacular marches for drums and trumpets.
This program has been recorded and is available from Alpha Classics / Outhere Music under the title Coronation Anthems moreinfo here
MIDSUMMER FESTIVAL | press coverage >> review of the concert by Emmanuel Deroeux for Olyrix
The dates
