Even 250 years after his death, we celebrate the huge number of operas, oratorios, sonatas, cantatas and concerts he wrote. Oak Park, Illinois, one such example, has hosted a Handel Week Festival every spring since 2000. Founded by Dr. Dennis E. Northway and Charles Chauncey Wells, the event aims to become a national center for Handel’s music performances.
It has been created after the model of the grandly successful Bach Week held in Evanston, to the north of Chicago, for more than 28 years.
The Handel Week Festival provides a brand new perspective on Handel’s music by featuring individual selections and chamber music in a cabaret setting. On Feb. 21 and 27 two concerts will presented, garnished with lectures on the music and a small glass of sherry in the company of famous critics, musicians, and authors.
According to the organizers, Handel wrote so many works that his pieces will not need to be repeated for many years. Thus, for the first time this year the Grace Episcopal Church in Chicago’s outskirts will be filled with the festive Water Music, a collection of orchestral movements—traditionally played on barges at the Thames River. It originally entertained King George I of England, and according to the story, he so favored the three suites that he ordered them to be performed three times in a row, though each one lasts at least an hour and a half.
The program of the festival will be further enriched with The Harp Concerto Op. 4 no. 6, a Cantata for soprano, “Dolc‘é pur d’amor l'affano,” Oboe Sonata, “Ho fuggito Amore” and “Lungi da me, pensier tiranno.”
Among the soloists will be soprano Sarah Gartshore, a bearer of the Tom Thomas Scholarship Award from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and a finalist in the Barnett Family Foundation Competition based in Chicago. She has been part of the festival since 2002.
Marguerite Lynn Williams will debut at the 10th anniversary concert series, despite her solid performer experience at venues like Carnegie Hall in New York, Shostakovich Hall in St. Petersburg, Russia and Symphony Centre in Chicago.
Among the other artists will be Thomas Yang—founding concertmaster of the festival and a distinguished violinist, a board member of the Metropolis Symphony Orchestra in Chicago. Also, the harpsichordist Thomas S. Wikman—a founder and musical director of Chicago’s Music of the Baroque, will appear.
Handel—Eulogized by the Best
The great German composer has been praised by the classical music composers throughout the ages. Bach said: “Handel is the only person I would wish to see before I die, and the only person I would wish to be, were I not Bach.”
Mozart expressed his admiration of Handel: “Handel understands effect better than any of us. When he chooses, he strikes like a thunder bolt.”
And Beethoven said that he was “the master of us all...the greatest composer that ever lived. I would uncover my head and kneel before his tomb.”
For more information about the Handel Week, please visit: http://handelweek.com
