Скачать или смотреть Händel: HWV 1/4. Sarabande (Almira) - Lawrence-King

Sarabande from the beginning of the first act
of the opera Almira, HWV 1

Libretto: Friedrich Christian Feustking, after Giulio Pancieri's Almira (music by Giuseppe Boniventi, 1690)

Music: Georg Friedrich Händel

First performance: Hamburg, Theater am Gänsemarkt - 8 January 1705
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Martin Stadler, oboe
Fiori musicali,
conducted by Andrew Lawrence-King

Recorded in July 1994
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This solemn sarabande for a royal procession became the touching aria "Lascia la spina" sung by Piacere in Händel's first oratorio, Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, HWV 45 (1707), and later Almirena's famous aria "Lascia ch'io pianga" in his first Londonian opera, Rinaldo, HWV 7 (1710).

The score in the Chrysander edition has a strange presentation: the A and B sections are supposed to be repeated (AABB), but at the end we also have the indication "Da Capo". I edited the score to make it look like a normal piece with da capo (ABA), as it is performed.

The instruments are not indicated, but they are probably the same as for the ouverture:

1. Violino I, Hautbois I
2. Violino II, Hautbois II
3. Viola
4. Bassi

The oboe solo, wonderfully performed by Martin Stadler, adds to this work the melancolic touch that it certainly did not have originally, and reminds us of the connection with "Lascia ch'io pianga".

Marc D.