Handel: Sinfonia from the Oratorio Esther | The English Concert & Händelfestspielorchester Halle

Baroque prologue: Two of the world’s most noted Baroque orchestras, the English Concert and the Händelfestspielorchester Halle, played the Sinfonia from the Oratorio Esther HWV 50a under the baton of Howard Arman as part of the Handel Celebration Concert on 14 April 2009. The performance took place in the spectacular Market Church of Halle, where Handel was baptized in 1685. (00:00) Andante (02:00) Larghetto (04:45) Allegro Esther is the first oratorio composed by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) to an English libretto. The premiere of the first version of Esther (HWV 50a) is thought to have taken place in 1718. The work was initially a six-scene masque for a small group of singers and instrumental ensemble. In the year 1732, Handel extensively reworked the original, expanding it into a large-scale oratorio (HWV 50b). The introduction to Esther is titled Sinfonia, a term commonly used in Italy to describe the instrumental prologue to larger works, most of them stage producti