George Frideric Händel - Te Deum, HWV 278 {Music for the Peace of Utrecht}

Composer: George Frideric Händel (23 February 1685 -- 14 April 1759)
Ensemble: Netherlands Bach Society
Conductor: Jos Van Veldhoven
Soloists: Nicki Kennedy (soprano), William Towers (counter tenor), Julian Podger (tenor), Wolfram Lattke (tenor), Peter Harvey (bass)
Year of recording: 2009

Te Deum (Utrecht) for soloists, chorus & orchestra in D major, HWV 278, written in 1713.

00:00 - I. We praise Thee, O God
03:36 - II. To Thee all Angels cry aloud
04:39 - III. To Thee Cherubin and Seraphim
06:00 - IV. The glorious Company of the Apostles
11:05 - V. When thou took'st upon thee to deliver man
14:36 - VI. We believe that thou shalt come to be our judge
17:46 - VII. Day by day we magnify thee
19:02 - VIII. And we worship thy name
19:48 - IX. Vouchsafe, O Lord
23:16 - X. O Lord, in thee have I trusted

Utrecht 'Te Deum' and 'Jubilate' is a sacred choral composition in two parts, written by Händel to celebrate the Treaty of Utrecht, which established the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, ending the War of the Spanish Succession.

The combination of a Te Deum and Jubilate (Psalm 100) follows earlier models. It was his first commission from the British royal family and established his career in London, and it was also his first major sacred work to English texts. Händel followed the models of Henry Purcell's 1694 Te Deum and Jubilate with strings and trumpets, which was regularly performed for official functions in St Paul's even after the composer's death, and a 1709 setting by William Croft. As in these models, Händel composed a combination of two liturgical texts, the Ambrosian Hymn Te Deum, We praise thee, O God, and a setting of Psalm 100, O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands, which is a regular canticle of the Anglican Morning Prayer. He followed the version of the Book of Common Prayer. The Te Deum and Jubilate, along with another composition "As Pants the Hart", earned Händel a yearly income from Queen Anne's Court. Donald Burrows writes in "Handel and the English Chapel Royal" that "his close association with the Court, reinforced by his musical contribution to events that were personal to the royal family, gave him both the benefits and the disadvantages of identification with the Hanoverian establishment." However, at the time his annual pension was granted it would not have been obvious that he was going to continue to enjoy the favour of the future George I, who was in fact opposed to the Treaty of Utrecht.

In the Te Deum, Händel inserted short solos to achieve a variety of textures as in a concerto grosso, to express the words. In movement 2, the two alto soloists begin together "To Thee all Angels cry aloud" on a base of three times "the heavn and all the pow'rs therein" in unison octaves of the choir. In movement 3, the announcement "To Thee Cherubin and Seraphim continually do cry" is rendered by two sopranos, whereas the full choir enters the homophon statement "Holy, holy, holy". Similarly, in movement 4 a tenor soloist sings of the "glorious Company of the Apostles", the bass soloist continues "the goodly fellowship", then the soprano soloists' "The noble army of martyrs praise Thee" leads to a tutti "The holy church", the movement culminates in an adagio on the words "The father of an infinite majesty" and concludes in runs in imitation on the word "glory". The beginning of movement 5 has been compared to Renaissance music: an alto soloist refers to "the Virgin's womb", the following "sharpness of death" is expressed by four soloists a cappella, contrasted by the choir's "Thou didst open the Kingdom of heav'n". Händel signed the last page of the Te Deum by SDG (Soli Deo Gloria -- To the only God glory).

The work was first performed in a public dress rehearsal on 5 March 1713 in St Paul's Cathedral. The official premiere took place after the tedious peace negotiations had finished, in a solemn thanksgiving service on 7 July 1713.