Monday 8 May 2006

Half-listening to Handel Coronation Anthems as mental preparation for a concert next week. Hmm - can't say I really like them much. The best of Handel's music has beautiful, eloquent things to say about the human condition, but this stuff is just empty bombast. To be honest, it's hard to understand why people still perform them, aside from the excitement of the opening of Zadok the Priest. It can't just be that Handel was churning out meaningless loud music because it was for a royal occasion, as his Birthday Ode to Queen Anne is fantastic, despite its silly text. Maybe I'll be proved wrong when I actually play in them, but they feel like the baroque equivalent of Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 or Walton's Crown Imperial - you think 'what are we saying by playing this music?'.