Ravinia 2026 Issue 5

a modern charm to the Baroque harmonic lan- guage and refrain form. The cello soloist enters after an orchestral introduction playing multi- ple-stops and florid passages. Haydn afforded numerous opportunities for virtuosic solo dis- play in the middle of the movement and in the cadenza. The Adagio radiates a warm lyricism in long cello lines. Another cadenza occurs before the final orchestral phrase. A relentless pulsa- tion in the bass instruments lends a rhythmic urgency to the Allegro molto finale. The cello matches with an ebullient, high-lying part, one of Haydn’s most exhilarating. GEORGE FRIDERICHANDEL (1685–1750) Coronation Anthems , HWV 258–261 After 13 years as the first Hanoverian king of Great Britain and Ireland, George I died of an apparent stroke on June 11, 1727, during his sixth return trip to Hanover, where he also reigned as the elector. News of the king’s death reached the London Gazette three days later. According to a newspaper account, George I was stricken with a sudden illness on June 9 while traveling in his coach between Delden, a small fortified village in the eastern part of the Dutch Republic, and the castle town of Nordhorn, just across the bor- der in Lower Saxony. Various medical treat- ments, including bloodletting, were adminis- tered before the entourage proceeded to Osnabrück, where the king’s younger brother, Ernest Augustus, served as prince-bishop. (Er- nest Augustus also held two British titles—Earl of Ulster and Duke of York and Albany—be- stowed on him by George I.) Despite the efforts of local physicians, the king died two days later at 1:00 a.m. George I became the first British monarch in over five centuries to be buried out- side his dominions: his remains were interred in the palace chapel of Leineschloss in Hanover, the traditional burial place of the electors. Within two weeks, British newspapers began advertising the coronation ceremony of his son and successor, George II, for the following King George II by the studio of Charles Jervas (1727) October. The task of composing the coronation music would ordinarily have fallen on William Croft, the organist, composer, and master of the children at the Chapel Royal, but his unexpected death on August 14—just two months before the ceremony—left the position vacant. Croft’s suc- cessor, Maurice Green, did not officially assume his responsibilities at the Chapel Royal until September 4. By that date, a decision had been reached to delegate the musical responsibilities to George Frideric Handel, who had held the honorary position “Composer of Musick for his Majesty’s Chappel Royal” since 1723. Just five months earlier, George I had supported Handel’s petition to become a naturalized citizen, which also required the consent of the House of Lords. The approval was finalized on February 20. Handel’s first royal commission as a naturalized citizen was this ceremonial music to accompany the coronation of the new royal couple. The Privy Council, the king’s cabinet of senior advisors, established a committee to over- see preparations for the Coronation of King George II and Queen Caroline. William Wake, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was charged with developing a draft Order of Service for the com- mittee. Wake quickly realized that the previous two coronation ceremonies for Queen Anne (1702) and King George I (1714) would not suf- fice in their entirety, for neither had involved the crowning of a royal consort, as would be the case this time. Further, much of the 1714 coro- nation ceremony had been conducted in Latin because George I spoke little English, and the clergy did not speak German or French. Wake decided to incorporate the Coronation of the Queen from the ceremony for King James II and Queen Mary (1685). On September 5, Wake presented his draft Or- der of Service to the Privy Council; after a sec- ond round of revisions suggested by the com- mittee, George II approved the ceremony on September 20. That same day, the Privy Council changed the date of the Coronation from Oc- tober 4 to the 11th, responding to forecast of a George Frideric Handel by Balthasar Denner (1727) high-tide flood of the King’s Scholars Pond Sew- er, which would inundate Westminster Hall and the coronation banquet. The Privy Council also instructed Wake to print 100 copies of The Form and Order of the Service for use by the officiants and The Ceremonial of the Coronation , which included a list of participants and their ceremo- nial dress, the hierarchical ordering during the Procession and other sections of the service, and detailed directions—the first time these corona- tion documents had appeared in print. The Order of Service was divided into 21 sec- tions with cues for choral anthems, traditional liturgical chants, and organ music. Handel’s re- sponsibility involved the composition of four anthems. He selected texts from the traditional English coronation liturgy, though in versions that differ from the published The Form and Order of the Service . Presumably, Handel had begun setting texts from the draft, as recorded in the New Cheque Book (the official administra- tive register) of the Chapel Royal, before the George II approved the final Order of Service. Handel’s four coronation anthems were placed at the most significant points in the service. The King Shall Rejoice appeared in the second sec- tion of the ceremony, The Recognition. After the archbishop presents the king in a loud voice to all four sides of the chapel, the people pro- claim: “God save King GEORGE the Second.” The trumpets sound, and the choir sings. The second of three anthems in The Anointing sec- tion, Zadok the Priest follows the Archbishop’s prayer of blessing over the anointing oil. Zadok was a descendent of Aaron, the brother of Mo- ses, and served as high priest during the reigns of David and Solomon. In obedience to David’s command, he anointed Solomon the King of Israel at Gihon, using oil taken from the tent of meeting. Zadok became the first high priest to serve in the newly constructed First Temple of Jerusalem. Zadok the Priest remains the most popular of Handel’s coronation anthems: it has been performed at every coronation since 1727. Queen Caroline by the studio of Charles Jervas (1727) RAVINIAMAGAZINE • AUGUST 24 – SEPTEMBER 6 , 2026 76