GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL
Born February 23, 1685, in Halle
Died April 14, 1759, in London
Handel composed Solomon in May and June of 1748. He was 63 years old, at the height of his powers, with all his operas and most of his oratorios behind him, and his position as the most popular English composer of his day firmly established. In the years immediately preceding, he had written several oratorios clearly intended to glorify English military prowess. In this work, with its celebration of the grandeur and power of Solomon’s empire, Handel’s contemporaries recognized a tribute to the England of George the Second, its peace, its prosperity, and the moral superiority of its system of justice. In addition, the libretto gave Handel plenty of opportunity to write music expressive of his fondness for nature, a very English taste that Handel shared with his adopted countrymen.
The three acts of the oratorio present three pictures rather than a single dramatic action. The first is concerned with the consecration of Solomon’s newly built Temple, and with the idyllic love of Solomon and his young queen, Pharaoh’s daughter. The second act, the central panel of the triptych, displays the story of Solomon’s judgment of the dispute between two women over which was the mother of an infant boy. The third act tells of the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon’s court. The presence of Solomon in all three acts ties them together, and the intense drama of the contest between the two mothers compensates for the more relaxed atmosphere of the opening and closing sections.
Handel’s mastery of music for chorus is evident throughout Solomon. The eight-part choruses that open and close the oratorio, and are scattered throughout, manifest the brilliance of Solomon’s court; the glitter of the orchestra in these movements is unsurpassed in any other work of Handel’s. Such movements as “With pious heart and holy tongue,” and “From the censer curling rise” convey the very essence of grandeur. Act One ends with what many would accept as Handel’s most perfect quiet choral movement, “May no rash intruder disturb their soft hours,” an epithalamium sung by the chorus for Solomon and his Queen. Other five-voice choruses form part of the little cantata in praise of the power of music that is sung for the Queen of Sheba in Act Three; of these, the tragic “Draw the tear from hopeless love” is surely one of Handel’s greatest inspirations.
The writing for solo voices in Solomon is equally distinguished, with a kind of easy mastery that belongs to a late work by a great composer. In Act One the latter part is entirely occupied with the love of the King and Queen, expressed in a series of airs of the greatest delicacy and grace—though sometimes with words that shocked the 19th century—in which the affection of the two royal lovers finds full expression, along with charming evocations of the beauties of nature. The characterization of the lovers is rather mild, since they are simply the embodiment of innocent love. In the judgment scene of the second act, however, Handel’s power of musical characterization is strikingly exemplified. The true mother makes her appeal to the King in music that lets us feel her inner distress and her love for her child. The false mother’s interruption is cast in music that conveys her insincerity and pettiness; Solomon intervenes between the women with dignity. The resulting trio, with each singer singing his or her own music, in the manner of Mozart, is an extraordinary display of psychological truth in dramatic music. The tension of the whole scene, with the music itself telling the story, shows why Handel must be considered one of the very greatest of musical dramatists.
The work’s concluding section is, of all the oratorio, that part which conveys Handel’s own serenity of spirit and the power of his music to make us aware of life’s beauty. Like Handel’s whole life, it is an assertion of the glory of life and of art.
—John F. Ohl (1908–1993)
Distinguished Professor of Music,
Shenandoah College and Conservatory
(Winchester, Virginia)
Amanda Gosier, soprano, Darryl Taylor, countertenor, Robert Shafer, conductor, Eva Cappelletti Chao, concertmaster
Photo by Don Lassell
Photo © Carol Pratt, Pratt Photography