Handel:
Dettingen Te Deum:
(version by Mendelssohn Bartholdy)

Haydn:
The Storm Hob XXIVa:8

Cherubini:
Chant sur la mort de Joseph Haydn

The most splendid of Handel’s Te Deum settings was composed during the Austrian War of the Succession, in which England fought on the side of Austria. To celebrate one of the victories of the allies over France at Dettingen am Main, the Dettingen Te Deum (which was only given this title later) was performed on 27 November 1743 in the Chapel of St. James’s Palace in London. Over the following years, it was always performed at state celebrations. Mendelssohn’s arrangement (in Carl Friedrich Zelter’s German translation) comprised the addition of flute, clarinet and horn parts without altering the structure of the composition. It could be said that he used the newly-added instruments like the registers of an organ, accompanying the vocal and instrumental parts at the same pitch or up or down an octave – though not with the timbre of a baroque organ, but with the light, full sound colors of the early romantic period. For the London Independent Nicholas McGegan is “one of the finest baroque conductors of his generation.” And as such he is known throughout the world for performances that match authority with enthusiasm, scholarship with joy, and curatorial responsibility with evangelical exuberance.