Alexander's Feast

Concerto Grosso in C major (from Alexander’s Feast)

Allegro

Largo

Allegro

Andante non presto

The Concerto Grosso in C major was written, like the Organ Concerto in G minor, for a performance of Alexander’s Feast in 1736. One of the most accomplished Handel scores of its kind, setting a solo group of two violins and cello against a ripieno of oboes and strings, it is much more a concerto than the F major work at the beginning of this programme. At first, in the opening Allegro, there is no distinction between solo and ripieno but then, once the thematic material is estasblished, solo episodes alternate with a few bars of ripieno, all of them including only an allusion to the main theme, which is finally recalled in full. In the melodiously expressive Largo the soloists take the lead, the ripieno role being kept to a minimum until it is integrated with the others towards the end. After the Allegro third movement – given the brilliance of its solo episodes, each one based on a different kind of figuration, and the textural complexity of the tutti passages – the Andante non presto might seem like an afterthought. Indeed, bearing in mind that the solo group now excludes the cello, it might well be a late add-on, but an entertaining one even so.