"Israel in Babylon” (Oratorio-pasticcio compiled by Edward Toms in 1764 after pre-existing music by Händel).

It was thanks to his oratorios that Händel became the first ‘repertoire composer’ in music history. So successful was the new genre of ‘English Oratorio’ he created, and so insatiable the thirst for more of this ‘finest music ever composed’, that after his death composers and close associates of Händel found it worthwhile to extract new oratorios from his original manuscripts. It’s the first recording of one of these masterpieces, and among the earliest documents of the Händel cult. It presents a pasticcio from the treasures of the British Library Royal Music Collection (R.M. 19.b.6. et GB-Lbl 1609/1619), which was long thought it ‘the best Compilation that has been made from the Works of the great Master’ (London, 1770). Really, the compilation was made by the trumpeter Edward Toms in 1764, in competition with the pasticcios of other composers like Samuel Arnold or the Händel’s copyst John Christopher Smith (Tobit, Nabal, Gideon... etc.). The Music, except some of the Recitatives, is selected from the Works of the late Mr. Händel: the Pifa from the Messiah, the Réjouissance from the Music for the Royal Fireworks (which Toms arranges as an effective Soldiers’ chorus), ‘Ombra mai fù’ from Serse, ‘Verdi prati’ from Alcina, ‘Da tempeste” from Giulio Cesare, the Siciliana from Ottone, other fragments of Giustino, Berenice, Admeto, the Chandos Anthems, the Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline, the Te Deum, the Concerti Grossi op. 6 and op. 3... etc. Toms reorchestrated Handel much as Mozart did, adding horns, clarinets and bassoons. The anonymous libretto is based on the biblical book of Ezra.

Joachim Fontaine