Acis and Galatea

In honor of the joint commemorative years for Handel and Mendelssohn in 2009, Mendelssohn’s arrangement of Handel’s Acis and Galatea will be published in cooperation with the Handel Society of Göttingen.

This setting of the love story from Greek mythology was among Handel’s most frequently performed works during the lifetime of the master. The interest in this work continued following his death, and in making their arrangements of it, no less than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy concerned themselves intensely with this work. Whereas the Mozart version of the oratorio was published in 1788 and found a widespread dissemination, until now Mendelssohn’s version has been handed down only in handwritten form. Yet the more recent version is no less impressive than the older one.

Through the addition of various wind instruments Mendelssohn achieved an enormously colorful orchestral sound which effective illustrated the dramatic plot, and even dramatized it in some cases. The entirely spacial interpretation by the barely twenty-year-old composer is based on the text of a then unknown German translation of the original text. Initial study of the partial autograph which has been handed down shows that Fanny, Felix’s sister, also worked on the translation of the text. The singing text in the edition will be printed in both English and German.

Scoring:

Soli: Sopran (Galatea), 2 Tenöre (Acis, Damon), Bass (Polyphemus) Coro SATTB, 2 Fl, 2 Ob, 2 Clt, 2 Fg, 2 Cor, Corno inglese, 2 Tr, Timp, 2 Vl, Va, Vc, Bc