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Programme Notes

GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL 1685-1759

'LET THE BRIGHT SERAPHIM'

from the Oratorio, Samson, 1741

GILLIAN KEITH, soprano

Gavin Mann, trumpet

Milton's Samson Agonistes was the basis for Samson, the biggest of all Handel's oratorios, which he began to write within days of finishing his most famous work, The Messiah. Astonishingly, he had finished Samson a month later, in October 1741, using a libretto provided by one Newburgh Hamilton, who had arranged the words (from Dryden) for Alexander's Feast in 1735.

Milton's great poem, modelled on Greek tragedy - a series of monologues with interpolations from a Chorus -- was published in 1671 but probably written much earlier. Milton prefaced the text by saying it 'never was intended' for the theatre -- though it has often been performed on the stage. Its theme, from the Book of Judges, is the last hours of Samson Agonistes (Samson the Champion, or Strong Man), imprisoned by the Philistines, blind and doubting the doctrine of God's Providence -- and, finally, bringing off a last feat of strength by pulling down his captors' temple.

Hamilton used parts of Samson Agonistes for his recitatives, and for the Airs and Choruses he also added 'several Lines, Words and Expressions' borrowed from some of Milton's smaller poems. The pruning and grafting process somewhat altered the spirit of Milton's 'Dramatic Poem' but the resulting oratorio moved Handel to produce an elaborate and opulently colourful score. The first performance took place in 1744 and was a triumphant success. At a later performance, in 1753, by which time Handel himself had gone blind, Samson's tragic predicament had gained a sad personal significance, and the Air is said to have reduced many of the audience to tears.

The Air, 'Let the Bright Seraphim' with an important part for solo trumpet, is given in the oratorio to 'an Israeli woman', its words expresing the work's conclusion that, in spite of man's misgivings, 'All is best, though we oft doubt, what th'unsearchable dispose Of highest Wisdom brings about, And ever best found in the close.'

'Let the Bright Seraphim'

Let the bright Seraphim in burning row,

Their loud, uplifted angel trumpets blow.

Let the Cherubic host, in tuneful choirs,

Touch their immortal hearts with golden wires.

Programme Notes by Paul Vaughan ©

 

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