This performance of the music of George Frideric Handel proves beyond doubt that his music was so much more than Messiah. Bernard Labadie and La Chapelle de Québec get a handle on Handel in this epic, friendly, and lively performance.

The German composer’s Laudate pueri Dominum(Praise the Lord, Ye Children) is a spine-tingling work for soloist, choir, and orchestra that came out of the composer’s apprenticeship in Rome where he wrote music for the pope and other dignitaries. King George I so loved Handel’s music that one of his last acts was to make Handel a naturalized citizen of Great Britain. Handel’s Coronation Anthems were composed for the crowning of King George II in 1727. 

The opening drumroll of Handel’s Royal Fireworks sounds like distant thunder before it erupts into this orchestral suite that celebrates the treaty ending the War of the Austrian Succession (which, incidentally, also restored Louisbourg of Cape Breton Island to France in 1748). The original performance took place outside and preceded a fireworks display. Handel’s Water Music, had its premiere on a barge on the River Thames, where it entertained King George I in 1717.