Handel - Chandos Anthems (Anthems for Cannons)

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Label: Alpha

Cat No: ALPHA1153

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Vocal/Choral

Release Date: 4th July 2025

Works

Handel, George Frideric

Chandos Anthem no.3: 'Have mercy upon me', HWV248
Chandos Anthem no.4: 'O sing unto the Lord a new song', HWV249b
Chandos Anthem no.6: 'As pants the hart for cooling streams', HWV251b
Chandos Anthem no.11: 'Let God arise', HWV256a

Artists

Arcangelo

Conductor

Jonathan Cohen

Works

Handel, George Frideric

Artists

Arcangelo

Conductor

Jonathan Cohen

About

In the summer of 1717, after performing his Water Music during a royal cruise on the Thames, Handel began composing for James Brydges (1674-1744), who became the first Duke of Chandos and created the Cannons Concert at his estate in Cannons (near Edgware), with ten instrumentalists and three singers. Handel composed eleven anthems and a Te Deum for him from August 1717 onwards, as well as transposing and revising As pants the hart (HWV251b). O sing unto the Lord a new song (HWV249b) is an adaptation of an anthem written three years earlier for the Chapel Royal. The anthem Have mercy upon me, O God (HWV248) was composed in 1717 and is a paraphrase of the Miserere. The Alleluia of Let God arise (HWV256a) prefigures the famous Hallelujah chorus from Messiah (1741). Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen now revive these four Chandos anthems composed for Cannons with eight singers and eleven excellent instrumentalists.

Sound/Video

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1

O sing unto the Lord, HWV 249b: 1. Sonata: Grave – Allegro
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O sing unto the Lord, HWV 249b: 2. O sing unto the Lord«
3

O sing unto the Lord, HWV 249b: 3. Declare His honour unto the heathen
4

O sing unto the Lord, HWV 249b: 4. The waves of the sea rage horribly
5

O sing unto the Lord, HWV 249b: 5. O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness
6

O sing unto the Lord, HWV 249b: 6. Let the whole earth stand in awe
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O sing unto the Lord, HWV 249b: 7. Let the heav’ns rejoice
8

Have mercy upon me, HWV 248: 1. Sonata: Andante – Allegro
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Have mercy upon me, HWV 248: 2. Have mercy upon me, O God
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Have mercy upon me, HWV 248: 3. Wash me throughly from my wickedness
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Have mercy upon me, HWV 248: 4. For I acknowledge my faults
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Have mercy upon me, HWV 248: 5. Against Thee only have I sinned
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Have mercy upon me, HWV 248: 6. Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladness
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Have mercy upon me, HWV 248: 7. Make me a clean heart, O God
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Have mercy upon me, HWV 248: 8. »Then shall I teach Thy ways
16

As pants the hart, HWV 251b: 1. Sonata: Larghetto – Allegro
17

As pants the hart, HWV 251b: 2. As pants the hart for cooling streams
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As pants the hart, HWV 251b: 3. Tears are my daily food
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As pants the hart, HWV 251b: 4. Now when I think thereupon
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As pants the hart, HWV 251b: 5. In the voice of praise and thanksgiving
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As pants the hart, HWV 251b: 6. Why so full of grief, O my soul?
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As pants the hart, HWV 251b: 7. Put thy trust in God
23

Let God arise, HWV 256a: 1. Symphony: Larghetto – Allegro ma non presto
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Let God arise, HWV 256a: 2. Let God arise
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Let God arise, HWV 256a: 3. Like as the smoke vanisheth
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Let God arise, HWV 256a: 4. Let the righteous be glad
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Let God arise, HWV 256a: 5. O sing unto God
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Let God arise, HWV 256a: 6. Praised be the Lord
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Let God arise, HWV 256a: 7. At Thy rebuke, O God
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Let God arise, HWV 256a: 8. Blessed be God

Europadisc Review

In the context of Handel’s wider output – from sonatas and concerti grossi to the great oratorios and operas – the ‘Chandos Anthems’ are relative outliers. Settings of psalm texts and paraphrases, the eleven anthems were composed by Handel in 1717–18 for his patron James Brydges, Earl of Carnarvon (from 1719, Duke of Chandos). Brydges had an estate at Cannons, Edgware, northwest of London, which at that time lacked a chapel, but he maintained a small musical establishment which performed in services at the local parish church of St Lawrence, Whitchurch, Little Stanmore. The church dated back to the 14th century, but the main body had been remodelled at Brydges’ expense in 1714–16, with an organ and raised platform at the east end which made it ideal for modest-scale music performances.

It was for this setting, beneath a trompe-l’oeil ceiling by Louis Laguerre, and surrounded by frescoes and murals by Bellucci and Sleter, that the performances took place during church services. The ensemble was, by Handelian standards, small-scale: three vocal lines (treble, tenor and bass), two or three violins, cello and double bass, a single oboe and bassoon plus organ continuo. The lack of an alto vocal line and absence of viola from the group of strings, may account for the Chandos Anthems’ relatively low profile, yet musically they present a kind of Handelian microcosm, combining Germanic contrapuntal elements with Italianate flair, and at some points even hinting at the visceral grandeur of Israel in Egypt of some twenty years later.

The Chandos Anthems have periodically enjoyed some fine recordings over the years, and all eleven were recorded in reference accounts by The Sixteen under Harry Christophers for (appropriately enough) the Chandos label in the late 1980s. But that was over 35 years ago (a long time in terms of sound technology), and so it’s particularly good to be able to welcome new recordings of four of these works by one of today’s outstanding Handel outfits, the singers and instrumentalists of Arcangelo under the vibrant direction of their founder, Jonathan Cohen. They have already proved their excellence in the composer’s music with their recordings of the Brockes-Passion and an award-winning account of Theodora starring Louise Alder. Now their new release of these ‘Anthems for Cannons’ puts a further feather in their Handelian cap.

The disc opens with one of the earliest works in the collection, O sing unto the Lord a new song, HWV249b, a reduced adaptation of an earlier Chapel Royal anthem from 1714. Preceded, like the other anthems, by an opening two-part instrumental ‘Sonata’, it includes a lovely soprano solo (‘O sing unto the Lord’), an imposing choral fugue, a gripping tenor aria (‘The waves of the sea rage horribly’, with Hugo Hymas skilfully riding the torrents beneath him), and a joyous closing chorus.

The other anthem performed with HWV249b on 4 August 1717, As pants the hart, HWV251b, is also included here, based on an even earlier Chapel Royal anthem, expertly adapted and enriched. The soprano’s ‘Tears are my daily food’, with plaintive writing for oboe and bassoon, is particularly affecting, while the following accompagnato for tenor, ‘Now when I think thereupon’, is notable for its arpeggiated violin solo. The penultimate movement, ‘Why so full of grief, my soul?’, presents a double dialogue, between soprano and tenor, and between violin and oboe. The closing movement, ‘Put thy trust in God’, features a notably high tenor solo.

Even more searching in tone is Have mercy upon me, O God, HWV248, a paraphrase on the Miserere. There’s a severity to the dotted rhythms and underlying tread of the opening ‘chorus’ (adapted from an aria of one of Handel’s early Italian cantatas), a gently touching duet for soprano and tenor (‘Wash me throughly’), and a tenor solo based on a passage from the Utrecht Te Deum. Even at its gravest (for instance, the stern-toned closing chorus), this performance has a beauty of tone and sureness of pacing that is utterly winning.

The final anthem presented on the disc, Let God arise, HWV256a, is the most expansive and forthright in tone, and the only one here to include an alto/high tenor line, enabling four-part vocal textures in the chorus movements. In ‘Like as the smoke vanisheth’, tenor and oboe duet over a swirling accompaniment, there’s a spring in the step of the soprano solo ‘Let the righteous be glad’, and ‘O sing unto God’ trips along as a choral gigue. In his succinct but informative booklet notes, David Vickers notes parallels between the choral accompagnato ‘Praised be the Lord’ and the rapt opening of the Queen Anne birthday ode Eternal Source of Light Divine. The final section, with its mounting waves of Alleluias, is a direct anticipation of Israel in Egypt at its most imposingly ecstatic.

All the soloists also sing in the mainly two-to-a-part choruses, and they and the instruments are uniformly excellent under Cohen’s vibrant yet sensitive direction. Recorded in St Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb (coincidentally, the same venue used by The Sixteen in their complete cycle from the late 1980s), the exceptionally vivid sound gives the impression of larger forces than the one- or two-per-part scoring might suggest. As such, all four works have a deep expressive impact, and for those wanting first-rate performances in state-of-the-art sound, this disc goes straight to the top of the pile. Another unmissable Arcangelo release from Alpha Classics!

Reviews

... even being rebuked by God sounds rather good fun when set to music by Handel and performed with the expressive vigour that always makes Jonathan Cohen’s work with Arcangelo worthwhile. The intimacy of the music-making (eight bright voices, 11 sparkling instrumentalists) is part of this album’s special joy.

The Times

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Handel - Chandos Anthems (Anthems for Cannons)

Usually available for despatch within 3-5 working days

Despatch Information

Contents

Works

Artists

Conductor

Works

Artists

Conductor

About

Sound/Video

Paused

Europadisc Review

Reviews