Handel German Arias

George Frideric Handel was born in Halle, Germany, in 1685. Yet it was not in his native tongue that his greatest masterpieces were to flourish: from oratorios to opera, not to mention his great choral works, the languages of his two favorite nations, Italy and England, were the ones Handel would mainly set to music throughout his career.

This program therefore invites us to discover a lesser-known Handel. The Nine German Arias are, in fact, the only chamber music pieces written by Handel to German-language texts - in this case, poems by Barthold Heinrich Brockes, from which Telemann and Bach also drew.

A great connoisseur of Handel, most of whose major works he has brought to the stage and on disc, William Christie presents here for the very first time these little jewels of musical poetry, so rarely performed. For the occasion, he is joined by two young solo singers well-versed in the art of Handelian singing, and an ensemble of instrumentalists loyal to Les Arts Florissants.