Salve Regina

“Ad te clamamus”

“Eia ergo, advocata nostra”

“O clemens, o pia”

The two vocal works in this programme, both written at a much earlier stage in Handel’s career than the concertos, might well have been performed on the same occasion just over 300 years ago – the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel celebrated on 16 July 1707 in the Church of Santa Maria di Monte Santo in Rome. Salve Regina was not initially intended for the Carmelite Vespers but, since it was written only a month before, it could have been incorporated in the service with Saeviat tellus among other Handel pieces. The shorter of the two works, Salve Regina is based on a text only ten lines long which, however, Handel divides into four verses, treating each one of them as a separate movement. Brought up in Germany as a Lutheran though he was, the young composer approaches the Marian antiphon as though to the Roman manner born. The setting of “Ad te clamamus,” where linear continuity breaks down under emotional pressure and violins clash in pained dissonance at the end, is particularly eloquent. The lively “Eia ergo” comes as a timely, bravura contrast between “Ad te clamamus” and the similarly plangent “O clemens, o pia.”