Handel: Alceste Overture

Description

FE113                                    0,2,0,[1] strings

(Maestoso); Allegro; Lentement; A tempo ordinario;

The extensive incidental music for a projected performance of a play after Euripides adapted by Tobias Smollet occupied Handel between December1749 and January 1750.  For reasons unknown the project never came to fruition, which is to be greatly regretted as the surviving music is of the highest quality. Luckily, Handel wasted very little and most of the music was re-used elsewhere. However, the incomplete torso that is Alceste deserves to be heard more frequently, for amongst many hidden treasures, the Soprano Aria ‘Gentle Morpheus’ is too exquisite to lie neglected. A further Overture in Alceste found a new incarnation two years later as the Overture to ‘Jephtha’ 

Full score                                           £6

Set of parts: wind and strings (43221)  £18

Extra string parts                                £4

Handel Overtures Series:

Multi-buy option: any 4 scores for £20; any 4 sets of parts £50