Radio: Handel’s “Belshazzar”

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31091, 21 June 1966, Page 10

Radio: Handel’s “Belshazzar”

The treatment of Belshazzar in choral music is these days associated with Sir William Walton’s dramatic cantata “Belshazzar’s Feast.” Nearly two centuries before Walton and Sitwell got to work, Handel wrote his oratorio, “Belshazzar,” now one of his least performed, and, some would have it, for no good reason. “ ‘Belshazzar’ contains some of Handel’s subtlest collective chacterisations; some strongly portrayed conflicts of emotion; one scene of sustained dramatic power; and certainly some of the gayest melodies he ever wrote;” writes a music critic of “The Times.”

“The devil, so to speak, has all the best tunes. Belshazzar himself and his degenerate Babylonians celebrate their heathen festivals to the cheerful, vigorously rhythmic strains that Handel usually reserves for such occasions.

“The captive Jews have altogether the more serious music including one glorious, solemn six-part chorus warning Belshazzar of the awful consequences of

desecrating the temple treasures, and a noble chromatic fugue graphically portraying his fall. “Between these extremes comes the virile music for the conquering Medes and Persians.”

A German performance of Handel’s “Belshazzar” will be broadcast from 3YC on Saturday evening.