Händel's Divine Recycling

Händel’s secondhand heaven, from Italian duets to Messiah

Händel wasn’t just a brilliant composer. He was also quite the self-recycling champion: he had these gorgeous Italian duets, little intimate chats between two voices, and thought, clearly too good to leave in a drawer. So he borrowed from himself, gave them a new sacred shine and promoted them straight into the heavenly ranks of Messiah.

It’s fascinating to hear how something intimate becomes monumental, secular becomes sacred, Italian is swapped with English in the most seamless way, and yet Handel’s musical imagination is unmistakable. It’s really self-borrowing as creative transformation.

Claron McFadden - soprano
Carla Nahadi Babelegoto - mezzo-soprano
Octavie Dostaler-Lalonde - violoncello
Artem Belogurov - harpsichord