Handel and Rameau

Imagine yourself in the royal court of Louis XIV or George I. Under the direction of Emmanuelle Haïm, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra plays works by two eighteenth-century baroque masters who climbed to the lofty status of court composers. Rameau gave the Sun King a reason to dance. And Handel’s Water Music, written for a royal cruise along the River Thames, became an overnight sensation. The impassioned solo cantata Il delirio amoroso by Handel will be sung by Dutch soprano Lenneke Ruiten, who returns just a few weeks after her debut with Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Rameau and Handel were contemporaries; both were hugely popular and each produced many pieces for kings, the nobility and influential members of the clergy. Rameau wrote operas for the court of Louis XIV, including the successful tragedy Dardanus. The composer was sure to include a lot of dance music because the Sun King loved to dance. Handel was a cosmopolitan German of just twenty-two when he composed Il delirio amoroso, based on verses by a cardinal he had met in Rome. Handel later became the court composer for George I, the music-loving Elector of Hanover who ascended the throne as King of Great Britain.