Israel in Egypt: Oratorio in Three Parts, HWV 54, and: Israel in Egypt: Oratorio in Three Parts, HWV 54: The versions of the 1739 and 1756-7 performances (review)

Georg Friedrich Händel. Israel in Egypt: Oratorio in Three Parts, HWV 54. Herausgegeben von Annette Landgraf. (Hallische Händel-Ausgabe, Ser. I: Oratorien und große Kantaten, Bd. 14.) Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1999. [Teilband 1: Part I-III. Editorial policy, pref. in Ger., Eng., p. vii-xxxix; facsims., p. xl-xliv; Libretto-Druck (London, 1739), p. xlv-xliv; Ger. trans. of libretto, p. l-lii; score, 410 p. Cloth. ISMN M-006-49581-8; BA 4063. Teilband 2: Anhang I, II und Kritischer Bericht. Libretto-Druck (London, 1757), p. vi-ix; appendix I, p. 411-54; appendix II, p. 455-565; Krit. Bericht in Ger., p. 567-617. Cloth. ISMN M-006-49581-8; BA 4063. DM 815 (set).]

Georg Friedrich Händel. Israel in Egypt: Oratorio in Three Parts, HWV 54. The versions of the 1739 and 1756-7 performances. Vocal score based on the Urtext of the Halle Handel Edition by Andreas Köhs. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2000. [Ensemble, 1 p.; pref. in Eng., Ger. (Annette Landgraf), p. iii-iv; contents, p. v-xii; vocal score, 530 p. Cloth. ISMN M-006-50527-2; BA 4063a. DM 74.]

The recent publication of Israel in Egypt is a particularly welcome set of volumes in the ongoing Hallische Händel-Ausgabe, for it comprises the first published complete edition of this major work--George Frideric Handel's most popular oratorio in the nineteenth century and one still frequently performed today. The fact that scholars, students, and performers have waited until 1999 for such an edition may surprise researchers in other fields, since the oeuvre of most of the important (and many not so important) composers has appeared in authoritative edited versions. In the case of Israel in Egypt, however, even Friedrich Chrysander's volume for his edition of Handel's complete works for the Deutsche Händelgesellschaft (Israel in Aegypten, Georg Friedrich Händel's Werke, 16 [Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1863?; reprint (as vol. 36), Ridgewood, N. J.: Gregg Press, 1966, etc.]) is woefully inadequate. The reason lies in this oratorio's unusual history and the complexity of its sources.

Like most of Handel's oratorios, Israel in Egypt divides into three parts, bearing the specific titles "The Lamentations of the Israelites for the Death of Joseph," "Exodus," and "Moses' Song." Part 1 was originally a retexted version of Handel's previously composed Funeral Anthem, HWV 264. The first performance of the complete oratorio took place on 4 April 1739 at the King's Theatre in London. The second and third performances on 11 and 17 April introduced a number of changes, including four inserted arias and a recitative for the soprano Elisabeth Duparc, and a number of cuts. The performance a year later seems to have followed Handel's original performance. The work was not revived again for sixteen years, and the librettos for 1756 and 1757 (none survives for the 1758 performance) indicate substantial changes. Foremost among them is a completely different part 1 consisting of solo and choral movements from Solomon, the Occasional Oratorio, and the Anthem on the Peace (HWV 266). The alterations to the second and third parts were comparatively minor.

It is the peculiar history of part 1 of Israel in Egypt that produced the disparate group of sources. For the original performance (which is generally the reading considered as primary by editors), the necessary alterations for part 1 of the oratorio were likely entered into the performing score of the Funeral Anthem, which was subsequently lost. The autograph and other primary sources thus contain only parts 2 and 3 of this work. The ensuing published editions dutifully followed the extant performing score, presenting the oratorio without its first part, based on the false belief that Israel in Egypt was an oratorio in two, not three, parts. So thought William Randall, when he published the...