George Frideric Handel (German: Georg Friedrich Händel; ) (23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music. He received critical musical training in Halle, Hamburg and Italy before settling in London (1712) and becoming a naturalised British subject in 1727. By then he was strongly influenced by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition.
Within fifteen years, Handel, a dramatic genius, started three commercial opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera, but the public came to hear the vocal bravura of the soloists rather than the music. In 1737 he had a physical breakdown, changed direction creatively and addressed the middle class. As ''Alexander's Feast'' (1736) was well received, Handel made a transition to English choral works. After his success with ''Messiah'' (1742) he never performed an Italian opera again. Handel was only partly successful with his performances of English Oratorio on mythical or biblical themes, but when he arranged a performance of ''Messiah'' to benefit the Foundling Hospital (1750) the critique ended. The pathos of Handel's oratorio is an ethical one, they are hallowed not by liturgical dignity but by the moral ideals of humanity. Almost blind, and having lived in England for almost fifty years, he died a respected and rich man.
Handel is regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time, not only because of his ''Water Music'', and ''Music for the Royal Fireworks''. But since the late 1960s, with the revival of baroque music and original instrument interest in Handel's opera seria has revived too. Handel composed forty operas in about thirty years; some are considered as masterpieces, with many sweeping arias and much admired improvisations. His operas contain remarkable human characterization, by a composer not known for his love affairs.
Handel was born in 1685 in Halle, Duchy of Magdeburg, to Georg Händel and Dorothea Taust. His father, 63 when his son was born, was an eminent barber-surgeon who served to the court of Saxe-Weissenfels and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. According to Handel's first biographer, John Mainwaring, he "had discovered such a strong propensity to Music, that his father who always intended him for the study of the Civil Law, had reason to be alarmed. He strictly forbade him to meddle with any musical instrument but Handel found means to get a little clavichord privately convey'd to a room at the top of the house. To this room he constantly stole when the family was asleep". At an early age Handel became a skilful performer on the harpsichord and pipe organ.
Handel and his father travelled to Weissenfels to visit either Handel's half-brother, Carl, or nephew, Georg Christian, who was serving as valet to Duke Johann Adolf I. Handel and the duke convinced his father to allow him to take lessons in musical composition and keyboard technique from Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, the organist of the Lutheran Marienkirche. He learned about harmony and contemporary styles, analysed sheet music scores, learned to work fugue subjects, and to copy music. In 1698 Handel played for Frederick I of Prussia and met Giovanni Battista Bononcini in Berlin.
In 1702, following his father's wishes, Handel started studying law under Christian Thomasius at the University of Halle; and also earned an appointment for one year as the organist in the former cathedral, by then an evangelical reformed church. Handel seems to have been unsatisfied and in 1703, he accepted a position as violinist and harpsichordist in the orchestra of the Hamburg Oper am Gänsemarkt. There he met the composers Johann Mattheson, Christoph Graupner and Reinhard Keiser. His first two operas, ''Almira'' and ''Nero'', were produced in 1705. He produced two other operas, ''Daphne'' and ''Florindo'', in 1708. It is unclear whether Handel directed these performances.
According to Mainwaring, in 1706 Handel travelled to Italy at the invitation of Ferdinando de' Medici, but Mainwaring must have been confused. It was Gian Gastone de' Medici, whom Handel had met in 1703-1704 in Hamburg. Ferdinando tried to make Florence Italy's musical capital, attracting the leading talents of his day. He had a keen interest in opera. In Italy Handel met librettist Antonio Salvi, with whom he later collaborated. Handel left for Rome and, since opera was (temporarily) banned in the Papal States, composed sacred music for the Roman clergy. His famous ''Dixit Dominus'' (1707) is from this era. He also composed cantatas in pastoral style for musical gatherings in the palaces of cardinals Pietro Ottoboni, Benedetto Pamphili and Carlo Colonna. Two oratorios, ''La Resurrezione'' and ''Il Trionfo del Tempo'', were produced in a private setting for Ruspoli and Ottoboni in 1709 and 1710, respectively. ''Rodrigo'', his first all-Italian opera, was produced in the Cocomero theatre in Florence in 1707. ''Agrippina'' was first produced in 1709 at Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo, the prettiest theatre at Venice, owned by the Grimanis. The opera, with a libretto by cardinal Vincenzo Grimani, and according to Mainwaring it ran for 27 nights successively. The audience, thunderstruck with the grandeur and sublimity of his style, applauded for ''Il caro Sassone''.
In 1710, Handel became ''Kapellmeister'' to German prince George, Elector of Hanover, who in 1714 would become King George I of Great Britain. He visited Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici and her husband in Düsseldorf on his way to London in 1710. With his opera ''Rinaldo'', based on ''La Gerusalemme Liberata'' by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso, Handel enjoyed great success, but it is difficult to see why he lifted from old Italian works unless he was in a hurry. This work contains one of Handel's favourite arias, ''Cara sposa, amante cara'', and the famous Lascia ch'io pianga. In 1712, Handel decided to settle permanently in England. He received a yearly income of £200 from Queen Anne after composing for her the ''Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate'', first performed in 1713.
One of his most important patrons was the young and wealthy Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington. For him Handel wrote ''Amadigi di Gaula'', a magical opera, about a damsel in distress, based on the tragedy by Antoine Houdar de la Motte.
The conception of an opera as a coherent structure was slow to capture Handel's imagination and he renounced it for five years. In July 1717 Handel's ''Water Music'' was performed more than three times on the Thames for the King and his guests. It is said the compositions spurred reconciliation between the King and Handel.
In 1719 the Duke of Chandos became one of the main subscribers to Handel's new opera company, the Royal Academy of Music, but his patronage of music declined after he lost money in the South Sea bubble, which burst in 1720 in one of history's greatest financial cataclysms. Handel himself invested in South Sea stock in 1716, when prices were low and sold before 1720.
In May 1719 Lord Chamberlain Thomas Holles, the Duke of Newcastle ordered Handel to look for new singers. Handel travelled to Dresden to attend the newly-built opera. He saw ''Teofane'' by Antonio Lotti, and engaged the cast for the Royal Academy of Music, founded by a group of aristocrats to assure themselves a constant supply of baroque opera or opera seria. Handel may have invited John Smith, his fellow student in Halle, and his son Johann Christoph Schmidt, to become his secretary and amanuensis. By 1723 he had moved into a Georgian house at 25 Brook Street, which he rented for the rest of his life. This house, where he rehearsed, copied music and sold tickets, is now the Handel House Museum. During twelve months between 1724 and 1725, Handel wrote three outstanding and successful operas, ''Giulio Cesare'', ''Tamerlano'' and ''Rodelinda''. Handel's operas are filled with da capo arias, such as ''Svegliatevi nel core''. After composing ''Silete venti'', he concentrated on opera and stopped writing cantatas. ''Scipio'', from which the regimental slow march of the British Grenadier Guards is derived, was performed as a stopgap, waiting for the arrival of Faustina Bordoni.
In 1727 Handel was commissioned to write four anthems for the coronation ceremony of King George II. One of these, ''Zadok the Priest'', has been played at every British coronation ceremony since. In 1728 John Gay's ''The Beggar's Opera'' premiered at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre and ran for 62 consecutive performances, the longest run in theatre history up to that time. After nine years Handel's contract was ended but he soon started a new company.
The Queen's Theatre at the Haymarket (now Her Majesty's Theatre), established in 1705 by architect and playwright John Vanbrugh, quickly became an opera house. Between 1711 and 1739, more than 25 of Handel's operas premièred there. In 1729 Handel became joint manager of the Theatre with John James Heidegger.
Handel travelled to Italy to engage seven new singers. He composed seven more operas, but the public came to hear the singers rather than the music. After two commercially successful English oratorios ''Esther'' and ''Deborah'', he was able to invest again in the South Sea Company. Handel reworked his ''Acis and Galatea'' which then became his most successful work ever. Handel failed to compete with the Opera of the Nobility, who engaged musicians such as Johann Adolf Hasse, Nicolo Porpora and the famous castrato Farinelli. The strong support by Frederick, Prince of Wales caused conflicts in the royal family. In March 1734 Handel directed a wedding anthem ''This is the day which the Lord hath made'', and a serenata ''Parnasso in Festa'' for Anne of Hanover.
In April 1737, at age 52, Handel apparently suffered a stroke which disabled the use of four fingers on his right hand, preventing him from performing. In summer the disorder seemed at times to affect his understanding. Nobody expected that Handel would ever be able to perform again. But whether the affliction was rheumatism, a stroke or a nervous breakdown, he recovered remarkably quickly . To aid his recovery, Handel had travelled to Aachen, a spa in Germany. During six weeks he took long hot baths, and ending up playing the organ for a surprised audience.
''Deidamia'', his last and only baroque opera without an accompagnato, was performed three times in 1741. Handel gave up the opera business, while he enjoyed more success with his English oratorios.
''Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno'', an allegory, Handel's first oratorio was composed in Italy in 1707, followed by ''La Resurrezione'' in 1708 which uses material from the Bible. The circumstances of ''Esther'' and its first performance, possibly in 1718, are obscure. Another 12 years had passed when an act of piracy caused him to take up ''Esther'' once again. Three earlier performances aroused such interest that they naturally prompted the idea of introducing it to a larger public. Next came ''Deborah'', strongly coloured by the Anthems and ''Athaliah'', his first English Oratorio. In these three oratorios Handel laid foundation for the traditional use of the chorus which marks his later oratorios. Handel became sure of himself, broader in his presentation, and more diverse in his composition.
It is evident how much he learnt from Arcangelo Corelli about writing for instruments, and from Alessandro Scarlatti about writing for the solo voice; but there is no single composer who taught him how to write for chorus. Handel tended more and more to replace Italian soloists by English ones. The weightiest reason for this change was the dwindling financial returns from his operas. Thus a tradition was created for oratorios which was to govern their future performance. The performances were given without costumes and action; the performers appeared in a black suit.
In 1736 Handel came with ''Alexander's Feast''. John Beard appeared for the first time as one of Handel's principal singers and became Handel's permanent tenor soloist for the rest of Handel's life. The piece was a great success and it encouraged Handel to make the transition from writing Italian operas to English choral works. In ''Saul'', Handel was collaborating with Charles Jennens and experimenting with three trombones, a carillon and extra-large military kettledrums (from the Tower of London), to be sure "...it will be most excessive noisy". ''Saul'' and ''Israel in Egypt'' both from 1739 head the list of great, mature oratorios, in which the da capo and dal segno aria became the exception and not the rule. ''Israel in Egypt'' consists of little else but choruses, borrowing from the ''Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline''. In his next works Handel changed his course. In these works he laid greater stress on the effects of orchestra and soloists; the chorus retired into the background. ''L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato'' has a rather diverting character; the work is light and fresh.
During the summer of 1741, the 3rd Duke of Devonshire invited Handel to Dublin to give concerts for the benefit of local hospitals. His ''Messiah'' was first performed at the New Music Hall in Fishamble Street, on 13 April 1742, with 26 boys and five men from the combined choirs of St Patrick's and Christ Church cathedrals participating. Handel secured a balance between soloists and chorus which he never surpassed.
The use of English soloists reached its height at the first performance of ''Samson''. The work is highly theatrical. The role of the chorus became increasingly import in his later oratorios. ''Jephtha'' was first performed on 26 February 1752; even though it was his last oratorio, it was no less a masterpiece than his earlier works.
In 1749 Handel composed ''Music for the Royal Fireworks''; 12,000 people attended the first performance. In 1750 he arranged a performance of ''Messiah'' to benefit the Foundling Hospital. The performance was considered a great success and was followed by annual concerts that continued throughout his life. In recognition of his patronage, Handel was made a governor of the Hospital the day after his initial concert. He bequeathed a copy of ''Messiah'' to the institution upon his death. His involvement with the Foundling Hospital is today commemorated with a permanent exhibition in London's Foundling Museum, which also holds the ''Gerald Coke Handel Collection''. In addition to the Foundling Hospital, Handel also gave to a charity that assisted impoverished musicians and their families.
In August 1750, on a journey back from Germany to London, Handel was seriously injured in a carriage accident between The Hague and Haarlem in the Netherlands. In 1751 one eye started to fail. The cause was a cataract which was operated on by the great charlatan Chevalier Taylor. This led to uveitis and subsequent loss of vision. He died eight years later in 1759 at home in Brook Street, at age 74. The last performance he attended was of ''Messiah''. Handel was buried in Westminster Abbey. More than three thousand mourners attended his funeral, which was given full state honours.
Handel never married, and kept his personal life private. His initial will bequeathed the bulk of his estate to his niece Johanna, however four codicils distributed much of his estate to other relations, servants, friends and charities.
Handel owned an art collection that was auctioned posthumously in 1760. The auction catalogue listed approximately seventy paintings and ten prints (other paintings were bequeathed).
:''Main articles: List of compositions by George Frideric Handel and List of operas by Handel. Handel's compositions include 42 operas, 29 oratorios, more than 120 cantatas, trios and duets, numerous arias, chamber music, a large number of ecumenical pieces, odes and serenatas, and 16 organ concerti. His most famous work, the oratorio ''Messiah'' with its "Hallelujah" chorus, is among the most popular works in choral music and has become the centrepiece of the Christmas season. Among the works with opus numbers published and popularised in his lifetime are the Organ Concertos Op.4 and Op.7, together with the Opus 3 and Opus 6 concerti grossi; the latter incorporate an earlier organ concerto ''The Cuckoo and the Nightingale'' in which birdsong is imitated in the upper registers of the organ. Also notable are his sixteen keyboard suites, especially ''The Harmonious Blacksmith''.
Handel introduced previously uncommon musical instruments in his works: the viola d'amore and violetta marina (''Orlando''), the lute (''Ode for St. Cecilia's Day''), three trombones (Saul), clarinets or small high cornetts (''Tamerlano''), theorbo, horn (''Water Music''), lyrichord, double bassoon, viola da gamba, bell chimes, positive organ, and harp (''Giulio Cesare'', ''Alexander's Feast'').
Handel's works have been catalogued in the ''Händel-Werke-Verzeichnis'' and are commonly referred to by an HWV number. For example, ''Messiah'' is catalogued as HWV 56.
After his death, Handel's Italian operas fell into obscurity, except for selections such as the aria from ''Serse'', "Ombra mai fù". The oratorios continued to be performed but not long after Handel's death they were thought to need some modernisation, and Mozart orchestrated a German version of ''Messiah'' and other works. Throughout the 19th century and first half of the 20th century, particularly in the Anglophone countries, his reputation rested primarily on his English oratorios, which were customarily performed by enormous choruses of amateur singers on solemn occasions.
Since the Early Music Revival many of the forty-two operas he wrote have been performed in opera houses and concert halls.
Handel's music was studied by composers such as Haydn , Mozart and Beethoven
Recent decades have revived his secular cantatas and what one might call 'secular oratorios' or 'concert operas'. Of the former, ''Ode for St. Cecilia's Day'' (1739) (set to texts by John Dryden) and ''Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne'' (1713) are noteworthy. For his secular oratorios, Handel turned to classical mythology for subjects, producing such works as ''Acis and Galatea'' (1719), ''Hercules'' (1745) and ''Semele'' (1744). These works have a close kinship with the sacred oratorios, particularly in the vocal writing for the English-language texts. They also share the lyrical and dramatic qualities of Handel's Italian operas. As such, they are sometimes performed onstage by small chamber ensembles. With the rediscovery of his theatrical works, Handel, in addition to his renown as instrumentalist, orchestral writer, and melodist, is now perceived as being one of opera's great musical dramatists.
Handel's work was edited by Samuel Arnold (40 vols., London, 1787–1797), and by Friedrich Chrysander, for the German Händel-Gesellschaft (105 vols., Leipzig, 1858–1902).
Handel adopted the spelling "George Frideric Handel" on his naturalisation as a British subject, and this spelling is generally used in English-speaking countries. The original form of his name, Georg Friedrich Händel, is generally used in Germany and elsewhere, but he is known as "Haendel" in France. Another composer with a similar name, Handl, was a Slovene and is more commonly known as Jacobus Gallus.
He is commemorated as a musician in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on 28 July, with Johann Sebastian Bach and Heinrich Schütz.
The 105-volume Händel-Gesellschaft edition was published in the mid 19th century and was mainly edited by Friedrich Chrysander (often working alone in his home). For modern performance, the realisation of the basso continuo reflects 19th century practice. Vocal scores drawn from the edition were published by Novello in London, but some scores, such as the vocal score to Samson are incomplete.
The still-incomplete Hallische Händel-Ausgabe started to appear in 1956 (named for Halle in Saxony-Anhalt Eastern Germany, not the Netherlands). It did not start as a critical edition, but after heavy criticism of the first volumes, which were performing editions without a critical apparatus (for example, the opera Serse was published with the title character recast as a tenor reflecting pre-war German practice), it repositioned itself as a critical edition. Influenced in part by cold-war realities, editorial work was inconsistent: misprints are found in abundance and editors failed to consult important sources. In 1985 a committee was formed to establish better standards for the edition.
Category:1685 births Category:1759 deaths Category:People from Halle, Saxony-Anhalt Category:Opera composers Category:Baroque composers Category:English classical organists Category:English composers Category:English people of German descent Category:German composers Category:German emigrants to the United Kingdom Category:German classical organists Category:Organ improvisers Category:Composers for pipe organ Category:Members of the Royal Society of Musicians Category:People from the Duchy of Magdeburg Category:People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar Category:18th-century German people Category:Walhalla enshrinees Category:Burials at Westminster Abbey Category:Anglican saints Category:Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Category:Classical composers of church music
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The Queen of Shebah (, ; , ; , '''') was a monarch of the ancient kingdom of Sheba and is referred to in Habeshan history, the Bible, the Qur'an, and Josephus. She is widely assumed to have been a queen regnant, although there is no historical proof of this; in fact, she may have been a queen consort. The location of her kingdom is believed to have been in Ethiopia or Yemen.
In the Hebrew Bible, a tradition of the history of nations is preserved in Genesis 10. In Genesis 10:7 there is a reference to Sheba, the son of Raamah, the son of Cush, the son of Ham, son of Noah. In Genesis 10:26-29 there is a reference to another person named Sheba, listed along with Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, Obal, Abimael, Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab as the descendants of Joktan, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, the son of Arphaxad, the descendant of Shem, another son of Noah.
Aharoni, Avi-Yonah, Rainey, and Safrai placed the Semitic Sheba in Southern Arabia in geographic proximity to the location of the tribes descended from their ancestor, Joktan. In addition to Sheba, Hazarmaveth and Ophir were identified. Semitic Havilah was located in Eastern Africa, modern day Ethiopia. Semitic Havilah (Beresh't 10:29) is to be distinguished from Cushite Havilah (Beresh't 10:7), the descendant of Cush, descendant of Ham; both locations for Havilah are thought by these scholars to have been located in present day Ethiopia.
It is related further that the queen was awed by Solomon's great wisdom and wealth, and pronounced a blessing on Solomon's God. Solomon reciprocated with gifts and "everything she desired." Solomon offered to give her everything his kingdom had to offer except the "royal bounty." Therefore, according to the Bible, "she turned and went to her country, she and her servants." The queen apparently was quite rich, however, as she brought four and a half tons of gold with her to give to Solomon (1 Kings ).
In the biblical passages which refer explicitly to the Queen of Sheba there is no hint of love or sexual attraction between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The two are depicted merely as fellow monarchs engaged in the affairs of state.
The biblical text, Song of Solomon (Song of Songs), contains some references, which at various times, have been interpreted as referring to love between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The young woman of the Song of Songs, however, continues to deny the romantic advances of her suitor, whom many commentators identify as King Solomon. In any case, there is little to identify this speaker in the text with the rich and powerful foreign queen depicted in the Book of Kings. The woman of the text of the song clearly does regard "The Daughters of Jerusalem" as her peer group.
The etymology of her name is uncertain, but there are two principal opinions about its Ethiopian source. One group, which includes the British scholar Edward Ullendorff, holds that it is a corruption of "Candace", the Ethiopian queen mentioned in the New Testament Acts; the other group connects the name with Macedonia, and relates this story to the later Ethiopian legends about Alexander the Great and the era of 330 BCE.
The Italian scholar Carlo Conti Rossini, however, was unconvinced by either of these theories and, in 1954 stated that he believed the matter unresolved.
An ancient compilation of Ethiopian legends, ''Kebra Negast'' ('the Glory of Kings'), is dated to seven hundred years ago and relates a history of Makeda and her descendants. In this account King Solomon is said to have seduced the Queen of Sheba and sired her son, Menelik I, who would become the first Emperor of Ethiopia.
The narrative given in the Kebra Negast - which has no parallel in the Hebrew Biblical story - is that King Solomon invited the Queen of Sheba to a banquet, serving spicy food to induce her thirst, and inviting her to stay in his palace overnight. The Queen asked him to swear that he would not take her by force. He accepted upon the condition that she, in turn, would not take anything from his house by force. The Queen assured that she would not, slightly offended by the implication that she, a rich and powerful monarch, would engage in stealing. However, as she woke up in the middle of the night, she was very thirsty. Just as she reached for a jar of water placed close to her bed, King Solomon appeared, warning her that she was breaking her oath, water being the most valuable of all material possessions. Thus, while quenching her thirst, she set the king free from his promise and they spent the night together.
Other Ethiopian accounts make her the daughter of a king named Agabo or Agabos, in some legends said to have become king after slaying the mythological serpent Arwe; in others, to have been the 28th ruler of the Agazyan tribe. In either event, he is said to have extended his Empire to both sides of the Red Sea.
The tradition that the Biblical Queen of Sheba was a ruler of Ethiopia who visited King Solomon in Jerusalem, in ancient Israel, is supported by the first century CE. Roman (of Jewish origin) historian Flavius Josephus, who identified Solomon’s visitor as a "Queen of Egypt and Ethiopia".
While there are no known traditions of matriarchal rule in Yemen during the early first millennium BC, the earliest inscriptions of the rulers of Dʿmt in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea mention queens of very high status, possibly equal to their kings.
Boccaccio's On Famous Women () follows Josephus in calling the Queen of Sheba, Nicaula. Boccaccio goes on to explain that not only was she the Queen of Ethiopia and Egypt, but also the queen of Arabia. She also is related to have had a grand palace on "a very large island" called Meroe, located someplace near the Nile river, "practically on the other side of the world." From there Nicaula crossed the deserts of Arabia, through Ethiopia and Egypt, and up the coast of the Red Sea, to come to Jerusalem to see "the great King Solomon".
Christine de Pizan's ''The Book of the City of Ladies'' continues the convention of calling the Queen of Sheba, Nicaula. Piero della Francesca's frescoes in Arezzo (ca 1466) on the ''Legend of the True Cross'', contain two panels on the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon. The legend links the beams of Solomon's palace (adored by Queen of Sheba) to the wood of the crucifixion. The Renaissance continuation of the metaphorical view of the Queen of Sheba as an analogy to the gifts of the Magi also is clearly evident in the Triptych of the Adoration of the Magi (c. 1510), by Hieronymus Bosch. Bosch chooses to depict a scene of the Queen of Sheba and Solomon in an ornately decorated collar worn by one of the Magi.
Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus refers to the Queen of Sheba as Saba, when Mephistopheles is trying to persuade Faustus of the wisdom of the women with whom he supposedly shall be presented every morning.
A team of researchers funded by the American Foundation for the Study of Man (AFSM) and led by University of Calgary archaeology professor, Dr. Bill Glanzman, has been working to "unlock the secrets of a 3,000-year-old temple in Yemen." "We have an enormous job ahead of us," said Glanzman in 2007. "Our first task is to wrest the sanctuary from the desert sands, documenting our findings as we go. We're trying to determine how the temple was associated with the Queen of Sheba, how the sanctuary was used throughout history, and how it came to play such an important role in Arab folklore."
Category:10th-century BC female rulers Category:10th-century BC biblical rulers Category:Arabian Peninsula Category:Arab queens Category:Queens Category:Arab people Category:Rulers of Yemen Category:Jews and Judaism in Ethiopia Category:Monarchs of the Hebrew Bible Category:Converts to Judaism Category:Beta Israel Category:History of Yemen Category:Jewish monarchs Category:Solomon Category:Islam and women Category:Muslim views of biblical figures
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He studied as a clarinettist, but was intent on becoming a conductor. After struggles as a freelance conductor from 1949 to 1957, he gained a series of appointments with orchestras including the BBC Scottish Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. He has been associated with the London Symphony Orchestra for over 50 years, including over ten years as its principal conductor. He has also held the musical directorships of Sadler's Wells Opera and the Royal Opera House, where he was principal conductor for over fifteen years. His guest conductorships include the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Dresden Staatskapelle, among many others.
As a teacher, Davis holds posts at the Royal Academy of Music, London, and the Carl Maria von Weber High School of Music in Dresden. He made his first gramophone recordings in 1958, and his discography built up in the succeeding five decades is extensive, with a large number of studio recordings for Philips Records and a growing catalogue of live recordings for the London Symphony Orchestra's own label.
Davis was educated at Christ's Hospital and then won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London, where he studied the clarinet with Frederick Thurston. As a clarinettist he was overshadowed by his fellow-student Gervase de Peyer, but he had in any case already set his mind to conducting. He was, however, not eligible for the conducting class at the college, because he could not play the piano.
His ambitions to conduct were further disrupted by compulsory military service, which was in force in Britain at that time. After leaving the college, Davis served as a clarinettist in the band of the Household Cavalry. Stationed at Windsor he had continual opportunities to attend concerts in London under conductors including Sir Thomas Beecham and Bruno Walter. After completing his military service, he launched himself in 1949 into what he later described as the "freelance wilderness", where he remained until 1957. His first conducting work was with the Kalmar Orchestra, which he co-founded with other former students of the Royal College. He made a good impression and was invited to conduct the recently-founded Chelsea Opera Group in ''Don Giovanni''. In the early years of his career he also took some engagements as an orchestral clarinettist. What seemed at first to be a full-time conducting appointment, for the Original Ballet Russe in 1952, came to an abrupt end after three months, when the company collapsed. In between sparse conducting engagements, Davis worked as a coach and lecturer, including spells at the Cambridge University Musical Society and the Bryanston Summer School, where a performance of ''L'enfance du Christ'' awakened his love of Berlioz's music.
Davis first found wide acclaim when he stood in for an ill Otto Klemperer in a performance of ''Don Giovanni'', at the Royal Festival Hall in 1959. A year later, Beecham invited him to collaborate with him in preparing ''The Magic Flute'' at Glyndebourne. Beecham was taken ill, and Davis conducted the opera. After the ''Don Giovanni'', ''The Times'' wrote, "A superb conductor of Mozart declared himself last night at the Festival Hall…. Mr Davis emerged as a conductor ripe for greatness." Neville Cardus in ''The Guardian'' was less enthusiastic but nevertheless considered that Davis "had his triumphs" in the performance. After ''The Magic Flute'', ''The Times'' called Davis "master of Mozart's idiom, style and significance", although Heyworth in ''The Observer'' was disappointed by his tempi, judging them to be too slow.
In 1960 Davis made his début at the Proms in a programme of Britten, Schumann, Mozart and Berlioz. In the same year, he was appointed chief conductor of Sadler's Wells Opera, and in 1961 he was made musical director of the company, with whom he built up a large repertoire of operas, conducting in London and on tour. ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' wrote of this period, "He excelled in ''Idomeneo'', ''The Rake's Progress'' and ''Oedipus rex'', and ''Fidelio''; his Wagner, Verdi and Puccini were less successful. He introduced Weill's ''Mahagonny'', and Pizzetti's ''Assassinio nella cattedrale'' to the British public and conducted the première of Bennett's ''The Mines of Sulphur'' (1965)." Together with the stage director Glen Byam Shaw, he worked to present operas in a way that gave due weight to the drama as well as the music. In his early years, Davis was known as something of a firebrand with a short fuse in rehearsals, and his departure from Sadler's Wells in 1965 was not without acrimony.
After he left Sadler's Wells it was widely expected that he would be offered the chief conductorship of the London Symphony Orchestra, but the post went to István Kertész. Soon afterwards Davis was offered the post of chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, though the appointment was not effective until September 1967. At first, so far as the public was concerned, his tenure was overshadowed, at least during the orchestra's most conspicuous concert seasons, the Proms, by the memory of Sir Malcolm Sargent, who had been an immensely popular figure as chief conductor of the Proms until 1966. Sargent had been "a suave father figure" to the promenaders, and it took some time for the much younger Davis to be accepted. The BBC's official historian of the Proms later wrote, "Davis never really identified himself with the Proms in the way that Sargent had done. Davis was uncomfortable with the traditional hullabaloo of the Last Night of the Proms and attempted, unsuccessfully, to modernise it. The BBC's Controller of Music, William Glock, was a long-standing admirer of Davis, and encouraged him to put on adventurous programmes, with a new emphasis on modern music, both at the Proms and throughout the rest of the orchestra's annual schedule.
Davis's early months in charge at Covent Garden were marked by dissatisfaction among some of the audience, and booing was heard at a "disastrous" ''Nabucco'' in 1971, and his conducting of Wagner's ''Ring'' was at first compared unfavourably with that of his predecessor. Among his successes were Berlioz's massive ''Les Troyens'' and ''Benvenuto Cellini'', Verdi's ''Falstaff'', the major Mozart operas, and, as one critic put it, he "confirmed his preeminence as a Britten and Stravinsky interpreter" with productions of ''Peter Grimes'' and ''The Rake's Progress''. Davis conducted more than 30 operas during his fifteen-year tenure, but "since people like Maazel, Abbado and Muti would only come for new productions", Davis yielded the baton to these foreign conductors, giving up the chance to conduct several major operas, including ''Der Rosenkavalier'', ''Rigoletto'' and ''Aida''.
In addition to the standard operatic repertoire, Davis conducted a number of atonal and other modern operas, including Alban Berg's ''Lulu'' and ''Wozzeck'', Tippett's ''The Knot Garden'' and ''The Ice Break'' (of which he is the dedicatee), and Alexander Zemlinsky's ''The Dwarf'' and ''Eine Florentinische Tragödie''. With later stage directors at Covent Garden, Davis preferred to work with those who respected the libretto: "I have a hankering for producers who don't feel jealous of composers for being better than they are, and want to impose their, often admittedly clever, ideas on the work in hand." Davis hoped that Goetz Friedrich, with whom he worked on Wagner's ''Ring'' cycle, would take on the role of principal producer vacated by Hall, "but it seemed that nobody wanted to commit themselves."
During his Covent Garden tenure, Davis was also principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1971 to 1975 and of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1972 to 1984. Another guest conducting engagement was in 1977, when he became the first English conductor to appear at Bayreuth, where he conducted the opening opera of the festival, ''Tannhäuser''. Despite the Bayreuth habitués' suspicion of newcomers, Davis's ''Tannhäuser'' was "highly successful". He debuted at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, in 1969, the Vienna State Opera in 1986 and the Bavarian State Opera in 1994.
In 1995, Davis was appointed principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. It was the culmination of a long association with the orchestra. He had first conducted the LSO in 1959, and in 1964 he headed the orchestra's first world tour. He became principal guest conductor in 1975 and was at the helm in the LSO's first major series at its new home, the Barbican Centre, in a Berlioz/Tippett festival in 1983. In 1997 he conducted the LSO's first residency at Lincoln Center in New York City. Davis was the longest-serving principal conductor in the history of the LSO holding the post from 1995 until 2006, after which the orchestra appointed him President of the LSO, an honour previously held only by Arthur Bliss, William Walton, Karl Böhm and Leonard Bernstein. On 21 June 2009, 50 years to the day after his first LSO performance, a special concert was given at the Barbican, at which present-day players were joined by many past members of the orchestra. Davis's programme for the concert was Mozart's Symphony No 40 in G minor, and Brahms's Piano Concerto No 2, with Nelson Freire as soloist.
During his time with the LSO, both as principal conductor and later as president, Davis has conducted series and cycles of the music of Sibelius, Berlioz, Bruckner, Mozart, Elgar, Beethoven, and Brahms, and in 2009 began presenting a cycle of the symphonies of Carl Nielsen. ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' wrote, "He conducted a Sibelius cycle in 1992 and a concert performance of ''Les Troyens'' the following year, both of which have become the stuff of legend. More recently he has added grand performances of Bruckner, Richard Strauss and Elgar, the première of Tippett's last major work, ''The Rose Lake'' (1995), and a Berlioz cycle begun with ''Benvenuto Cellini'' in 1999 and crowned by an incandescent ''Les Troyens'' in December 2000, all confirming his partnership with the LSO as one of the most important of its time."
Davis's 1966 Philips recording of Handel's ''Messiah'' was regarded as revelatory at the time of its issue for its departure from the large-scale Victorian-style performances that had been customary before then. Other Philips recordings included a 1982 set of Haydn's twelve London Symphonies with the Concertgebouw Orchestra "distinguished by performances of tremendous style and authority, and a sense of rhythmic impetus that is most exhilarating"; and a 1995 Beethoven symphony cycle with the Dresden Staatskapelle, of which ''The Gramophone'' wrote, "There has not been a Beethoven cycle like this since Klemperer's heyday."
Davis made a number of records with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for Philips, including the first of his three Sibelius cycles, which remains in the CD catalogues. They also recorded works by Debussy, Grieg, Schubert, Schumann, and Tchaikovsky.
For RCA, Davis recorded complete symphony cycles of Sibelius (with the LSO), Brahms (Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, 1989–98), and Schubert (Dresden Staatskapelle, 1996).
Other awards include Pipe Smoker of the Year in 1996, Male Artist of the Year in the Classical Brit Awards 2008, and the Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Opera for his LSO Live recording of Verdi's ''Falstaff''.
Category:1927 births Category:Academics of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Academics of the University of Cambridge Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Music Category:BBC Symphony Orchestra Category:Christ's Hospital Old Blues Category:English conductors (music) Category:Music directors (opera) Category:Living people Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Category:Members of the Bavarian Order of Merit Category:Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Commanders of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic Category:Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Category:Commanders of the Order of the Lion of Finland Category:Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Category:Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medallists Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Recipients of the Queen's Medal for Music Category:People from Weybridge Category:London Symphony Orchestra principal conductors Category:Members of the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art
ca:Colin Davis (músic) de:Colin Davis et:Colin Davis es:Colin Davis fr:Colin Davis it:Colin Davis (direttore d'orchestra) he:קולין דייוויס nl:Colin Davis ja:コリン・デイヴィス pt:Colin Davis ru:Дэвис, Колин simple:Colin Davis fi:Colin Davis (kapellimestari) sv:Colin Davis zh:科林·戴维斯This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
At the Schola, Andreas Scholl's teacher was Richard Levitt, followed by Jacobs in his second year. Violinist Chiara Banchini and soprano Emma Kirkby were major influences, as Scholl began to specialise in the music of the Baroque. Scholl additionally studied with soprano Evelyn Tubb and lutenist Anthony Rooley. In addition to the Diploma of Ancient Music, for which his external examiner was James Bowman, Andreas Scholl garnered prizes from the Council of Europe and the Foundation Claude Nicolas Ledoux, and awards from Switzerland's Association Migros and Ernst Göhner Foundation.
Andreas Scholl has been teaching interpretation in the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, succeeding his own teacher, Richard Levitt, and is in much demand for master classes.
Scholl performed Bach's ''Mass in B minor'' in 1995, conducted by Jacobs, and sang Purcell on a tour in France. In 1998 Scholl and his sister performed in Bach's ''St Matthew Passion'', with Max Ciolek as the Evangelist and Max van Egmond as the Vox Christi, in St. Martin, Idstein. Scholl made his debut on the opera stage in Handel's ''Rodelinda'' at the Glyndebourne Festival and performed the title role of ''Solomon'' at The Proms. He gave recitals in Wigmore Hall and at the Brighton Festival.
The composer Marco Rosano has created a new Stabat Mater for Andreas Scholl; he sang the first complete performance of this work on 22 February 2008 at the City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney, accompanied by the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra under Paul Dyer.
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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