They still do it
Dec. 10th, 2014 12:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dormouse1953It's a busy week for me for musical excursions to London. Six events in eight days. Last weekend saw a mini-festival of the music of Sir Harrison Birtwistle (80 this year) at the South Bank - three concerts in three days. Tonight I am going to see Sondheim's Assassins, one of my favourite Sondheim musicals. Friday night the BBC are putting on a performance of Busoni's monumental piano concerto, a piece I heard on the radio when I was at university in 1972 and have only been to one other concert performance ever, at the Proms back in 1988. (I have been to two separate productions of Assassins in that time. Indeed, the show hadn't been written back in 1988.)
Last night it was Handel's Messiah, a piece performed a bit more often than the Busoni, but not something I often go to. I prefer Handel's more florid Italian operas and Messiah has gathered 250 years of performance traditions. Still, it was a period instruments band performing it, not a modern symphony orchestra - valveless trumpets, etc.
When the famous Hallelujah chorus started, at the end of part 2, I noticed people starting to stand. I had almost entirely forgotten about this tradition. I remember my music teacher telling us about this at school. When the king attended the first London performance he was so moved by this that he stood, and when the king stood, everyone else had to stand.
It's a nice story. But I see there is some debate as to why he stood. Was it political - the earthly monarch standing before the heavenly one? Did he mistake it for the National Anthem? Did he think it was the interval and was dying for the loo?
And it appears there is little evidence George II ever attended a performance of Messiah. The first performance was in Dublin in 1742 and the London premier was the following year. But the first time the story about the king standing appears was in 1756.
As to me, I wasn't intending to stand, but soon I was surrounded by standing people and I had to stand just to be able to see.
Last night it was Handel's Messiah, a piece performed a bit more often than the Busoni, but not something I often go to. I prefer Handel's more florid Italian operas and Messiah has gathered 250 years of performance traditions. Still, it was a period instruments band performing it, not a modern symphony orchestra - valveless trumpets, etc.
When the famous Hallelujah chorus started, at the end of part 2, I noticed people starting to stand. I had almost entirely forgotten about this tradition. I remember my music teacher telling us about this at school. When the king attended the first London performance he was so moved by this that he stood, and when the king stood, everyone else had to stand.
It's a nice story. But I see there is some debate as to why he stood. Was it political - the earthly monarch standing before the heavenly one? Did he mistake it for the National Anthem? Did he think it was the interval and was dying for the loo?
And it appears there is little evidence George II ever attended a performance of Messiah. The first performance was in Dublin in 1742 and the London premier was the following year. But the first time the story about the king standing appears was in 1756.
As to me, I wasn't intending to stand, but soon I was surrounded by standing people and I had to stand just to be able to see.
