"A Grand Selection, The First Part Solely from 'The Messiah'" - Original 1818 Broadside

Original broadside for a Friday, February 13, 1818 concert at Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, featuring the first part of Handel's The Messiah, "To particular Airs and Choruses of which will be introduced the Additional Accompaniments by W. A. Mozart."  To verso, an unknown period hand has rather amusingly recorded that attendance was "very so so until second Price and then pretty full all over. Concluded by Eleven or a few minutes after. Money Taker at... Check Mr. Keating." Additional performances are also noted, including a Flute Concerto by Drouet and a Cello Concerto by Lindley.  Some of the celebrated singers listed include Catherine Stephens, Fanny Corri-Paltoni and John Braham. Creases and rough edges, but overall in fine condition.  Approximately 8.25 x 12.25 inches (21.3 x 42.5 cm).

Louis Drouet (1792–1873), featured French flautist and composer, was a close friend of Felix Mendelssohn. In his teenage years, Drouet was the teacher of Louis Bonaparte, Napoléon's brother.

"In 1789, at the request of Baron Gottfried van Swieten, Mozart, by all accounts a profound admirer of Handel, also re-orchestrated Messiah. It is often said that the subject of the re-orchestration was to compensate for the absence of an organ in the hall, but this is not borne out by what Mozart does, which seems more of a translation into terms suggested by the ordinary forces for these concerts; these included flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns and trombones. The trumpets were demoted from melodic to harmonic instruments. 'The trumpet shall sound' and 'If God be for us,' which van Swieten called the 'cold aria,' were rewritten, the latter as a recitative" (Luckett, Handel's Messiah: A Celebration, 214). (18500)

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