HANDEL: Dixit Dominus

Scholars Baroque Ensemble

8.553208

As organist and choirmaster in Hallé Cathedral five years earlier Handel had already gained a reputation as a musician. In his subsequent operatic compositions he had familiarised himself with a more Italian style. His facility in bringing these two musical languages together in sacred music impressed his patrons and commissions for a series of Latin church pieces quickly appeared. Of these works, composed between April and July 1707, the first was a setting of Psalm CIX (Psalm CX in the Lutheran numbering), Dixit Dominus and the last, that of Psalm CXXVI (Psalm CXXVII in the Lutheran numbering), Nisi Dominus. In between came several sacred anthems and cantatas including a setting of the hymn Salve Regina. • It now seems highly probable that the psalms and the Salve Regina were all first performed on 16th July 1707 at a special service of Vespers for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the Madonna del Cannine, in the Church of Santa Maria di Monte Santo, under the patronage of the Colonna family. • The score of Dixit Dominus is dated April 1707 and is Handel's earliest surviving autograph. This most magnificent of his psalm settings opens with an impressive chorus contrasting an imitation plainsong cantus firmus melody (introduced by the sopranos at the words donec ponam) with a polyphonic texture presented by both the chorus and the orchestra.

CD x 1

Naxos

15/11/1999

730099420822