Music for a Queen
Handel Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne, HWV 74
Handel ‘Utrecht’ Te Deum & Jubilate, HWV 278 & 279
We welcome back the Choir of King’s College London, following the success of their Festival debut in 2018, in a programme associated with royal ‘divas’. Handel’s Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne is a true fusion of styles – the English practice of odes for royal occasions, the structure of the German cantata, and the lyric writing of Italian opera.
The Queen paid little attention to the work when Handel presented it to her in February 1713, but Handel’s Ode enjoys rather more royal approval now, its first movement forming the opening music of the 2018 wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The Ode is paired with Handel’s Te Deum and Jubilate, also written in 1713 to celebrate the Peace of Utrecht.
Choir of King’s College, London
Joseph Fort conductor
Tickets: £15 unreserved seating