Luogo e data di registrazione		Walthamstow Town, London (Inghilterra) - 30 giugno / 2 luglio 1958
	Original Editions		- Archiv Produktion | 14 124 APM | 1 LP | (p) 1949 | ANA
	Edizione "Codex"		Archiv Produktion "Codex" | 453 167-2 | durata 51' 58" | LC 0113 | 1 CD | (p) 1996 | ADD | mono
	Executive Producer		Dr. Hans Hickmann
	Recording Producer		Dr. Ursula von Rauchhaupt
	Balance Engineer (Tonmeister)		Harald Baudis
	Cover		Fresco bz andrea Poyyo, St. Ignayio, Rome (detail) - © Mauro Pucciarelli, Rome
	Art Direction		Fred Münzmaier
	Note		Original-Image-Bit-Processing - Added presence and brilliance, greater spatial definition

ORIGINAL EDITIONS 1 LP - 14 124 APM - (p) 1959

Treasures from Archiv Produktion’s Catalogue A rare and valuable collection of documents is the pride of any library or archive. CODEX, Archiv Produktion’s new series, presents rare documents in sound from 50 years of pioneering recording. These recordings have been digitally remastered using original-image bit-processing technology and can now be appreciated in all the richness of their original sound-image. They range from the serene counterpoint of a Machaut, the intensely spiritual polyphony of a Victoria, to the imposing state-music of a Handel. For the artists on Archiv Produktion recordings, a constant aim has been to rediscover the musical pulse of past times and to recreate the spirit of past ages. In this sense each performance here - whether by Pro Musica Antiqua of Brussels in the 1950s, the Regensburg Domchor in the 1960s, or Kenneth Gilbert and Trevor Pinnock in the 1970s - made a vital contribution to the revival of Early Music in our time. CODEX highlights recordings that were unique in their day, many of them first recordings ever of this rare and remarkable repertoire, now appearing for the first time on CD. A special aspect of the history of performance in our century can now be revisited, as great moments from Archiv Produktion’s recording history are restored and experienced afresh. Dr. Peter Czornyi Director, Archiv Produktion HANDEL: "UTRECHT" TE DEUM AND JUBILATE - ZADOK THE PRIEST Handel arrived in London in 1710 and pursued a virtually continuous career there for the rest ofhis life. Most of his music was written for the theatre, but he also composed English church music to enhance services marking particular national events. He became the composer of music for principal court or national celebrations, though we have no reason to doubt that his church music also expressed religious sentiments that came naturally to the composer. He also seems to have revelled in the grand effects that could be achieved from the large (in 18th-century terms) forces that were gathered for state occasions in London. In this respect, the works included on this recording marked a new development in English church music: in them, traditional English texts for national religious celebrations received forceful setting in the version of the late Baroque musical style that Handel made especially his own. This style is apparent in the Latin psalms that Handel had composed in Rome in 1707, and indeed probably had its roots even earlier in German works that are now lost: but it was in London, and in the English language, that he found the opportunities to bring the style to its most developed and vivid form. The Peace of Utrecht, ending the European War of the Spanish Succession, fell at an interesting period in Handel’s career. From the English perspective, active engagement during the first decade of the 18th century - the period of the Duke of Marlborough’s famous victories - had given place to a political change that involved withdrawal from the war. This change of policy from Queen Anne’s government was looked upon with disfavour by her allies in the war, including the Hanoverian interest. Handel’s ready participation in the celebrations of the Peace in 1713 indicated his commitment to his new-found home in London, and probably explains the various anecdotes about the initial coolness with which the composer was regarded by the Elector of Hanover when he came to succeed as King George I of Great Britain upon Anne’s death the next year. Handel composed the “Utrecht” music early in 1713: his only previous piece of English church music had been a short “verse” anthem for the Chapel Royal composed towards the end of 1712. He may well have looked at the published score of Purcell’s D major Te Deum and Jubilate from 1694, to give him a general idea of the sort of setting that the texts might receive in a full ceremonial layout for soloists, chorus and orchestra. But Handel’s version is on a much bigger scale than Purcell’s, and in a much more powerful style: it is also a remarkable achievement for a composer whose contact with the English language was still relatively recent. The state service in celebration of the Peace, which eventually took place in July 1713 at St. Paul’s Cathedral, was preceded by a number of public rehearsals, at which the music appears to have been well received: one newspaper report said that it was “much commended by all that have heard the same, and are competent judges therein”. It seems certain that the “competent judges” had heard nothing quite like it before: with the “Utrecht” music Handel set up a new model for ceremonial English church music. The coronation service for King George II and Queen Caroline in October 1727 provided the next occasion on which Handel could exercise this grand style: according to one report, he had 40 voices and 160 instruments at his disposal. It seems that Handel’s musical contribution to the coronation service was the result of a specific invitation or command from the Royal Family: the leading Chapel Royal composer, William Croft, had died a couple of months before the coronation, and the King seems to have used his influence in Handel’s favour, in preference to the leading London church musician Maurice Greene, who eventually filled Croft’s place at the Chapel Royal. Handel had not written any music for the previous coronation, of King George I in 1714. At that date he was still a German, though receiving a British pension granted by Queen Anne, possibly largely as a reward after the “Utrecht” music. By the time of the coronation in 1727, however, his situation was different: in 1723 he had received a (largely honorary) court appointment as Composer for the Chapel Royal, and one of King George I’s last acts in 1727 had been to sign a parliamentary bill naturalizing Handel as a British citizen. According to an anecdote later recorded by Charles Burney, Handel was sent the texts of the anthems for the coronation in 1727 by the Bishops and responded, “I have read my bible very well, and shall choose for myself.” In fact the coronation liturgy was traditional even to the texts of the anthems, and the form of service used in 1727 was very similar to that used in previous coronations: the words that Handel set varied only in minor details from ones that composers had set in the past. The scale and style of Handel’s music in 1727 was entirely new, however, and nowhere more so than in Zadok the Priest, the anthem that traditionally accompanied the anointing of the King. The cumulative effect of the curtainraising orchestral introduction, the dramatic entry of the full choir divided in seven parts, and the concentration of the subsequent blocks ofmusical sound for “God save the King”, must have been thrilling for its original listeners. It is not surprising that this anthem has become a “classic”, used at every subsequent British coronation. Handel himself contributed to the establishment of the anthem’s popularity by including part of it in the score of his first theatre performances of English oratorio five years after the coronation: he would probably have been neither surprised nor displeased that this has become one ofhis best-known works. Donald Burrow