Adrian Butterfield – Handel: Chandos Te Deum – Chandos Anthem No. 8 (2018) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

Before coming into contact with James Brydges, Earl of Carnarvon, Handel was is dire straits in London. His pension of £200 a year for teaching the Royal princesses had stopped, as had the public taste for opera. London had plunged into a hedonistic, alcohol- and gambling-driven lifestyle, where the bawdier things were the better. Brydges, one of the most colourful and roguish figures of the day, had built himself a vast palace (from wealth plundered whilst he was Paymaster General during the Spanish Wars of Succession) to rival anything the King could boast of – Cannons House in north London, set up as a rival court to King George I, where he employed Handel to replace Johann Pepusch as Kapellmeister. No surprise that the Earl has been described as ‘having no enmity with his conscience:’ The ‘King of Bling’ would have 13 Chandos Anthems and the Te Deum on this recording composed by a grateful Handel. It couldn’t last, though, and Handel was eventually lured back to the embrace of the Royal Court and London’s rediscovered love of opera. Now the 1st Duke of Chandos, Brydges had lost his vast fortune and his home in the South Sea Bubble financial crisis of 1720, and Cannons House was demolished, its treasures and features sold off. It was as if it had never been – except for Handel’s glorious music composed at Cannons House.

Tracklist:
1. Te Deum, HWV 281: I. We praise thee, O God 03:14
2. Te Deum, HWV 281: II. All the earth doth worship thee 03:18
3. Te Deum, HWV 281: III. The glorious company of the Apostles 03:19
4. Te Deum, HWV 281: IV. Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ 02:56
5. Te Deum, HWV 281: V. When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man 02:21
6. Te Deum, HWV 281: VI. When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death 01:26
7. Te Deum, HWV 281: VII. Thou sittest at the right hand of God 04:05
8. Te Deum, HWV 281: VIII. We believe that thou shalt come to be our Judge 03:17
9. Te Deum, HWV 281: IX. Day by day we magnify thee 01:59
10. Te Deum, HWV 281: X. And we worship thy Name, ever world without end 01:20
11. Te Deum, HWV 281: XI. Vouch-safe, O lord, to keep us this day without sin 03:46
12. Te Deum, HWV 281: XII. O Lord in thee have I trusted 04:09
13. Chandos Anthem No.8, HWV 253: I. Symphony: Largo-Allegro 03:55
14. Chandos Anthem No.8, HWV 253: II. O come let us sing unto the Lord 03:19
15. Chandos Anthem No.8, HWV 253: III. O come let us worship 03:41
16. Chandos Anthem No.8, HWV 253: IV. Glory and worship are before Him 01:47
17. Chandos Anthem No.8, HWV 253: V. Tell it, tell it out among the heathen 05:57
18. Chandos Anthem No.8, HWV 253: VI. O magnify the Lord 03:39
19. Chandos Anthem No.8, HWV 253: VII. The Lord preserveth the souls 03:02
20. Chandos Anthem No.8, HWV 253: VIII. For look as high as the heaven is 02:18
21. Chandos Anthem No.8, HWV 253: IX. There is sprung up a light for the righteous 02:31