Queen Anne celebrated her 48th and penultimate birthday on February 6th, 1713. Handel probably composed his ode, Eternal source of light divine for the occasion though it seems that the work may not, in fact, have been performed then. The Caroline Te Deum was Handel's second setting of the canticle probably dating from 1714 when it may well have been sung for the succeeding monarch, Hanoverian George I, at the Chapel Royal. The wedding anthem Sing unto God is of a later date. Handel wrote it in 1736 for the wedding of the Prince of Wales and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha at St James's Palace when, according to one report, it was ''wretchedly sung''.
The most substantial of the three pieces recorded here is the Birthday Ode with its text by the poet and playwright, Ambrose Philips. There are seven stanzas to each of which Handel allotted a separate movement consisting of a solo and a choral section. The layout is somewhat similar to the odes of Purcell and, though the scale is grander, Handel's debt to his English predecessor is unmistakable; that much is evident both from the opening alto solo with obbligato trumpet and perhaps, too, from the fluency with which Handel only lately arrived in England, set the English words. I would want this disc if only for James Bowman's affecting singing of its beautiful opening movement but, fortunately, there are other appealing features in the performance with strong contributions from Gillian Fisher and Michael George. The music is consistently interesting some of it eventually finding its way into the 1731 version of the English oratorio, Esther. Other pieces too, amongst them the solo and chorus ''The day that gave great Anna birth'' which occurs in an adjusted form in Handel's Concerto grosso in G major, Op. 3 No. 3, may seem familiar through other contexts.
I confess that until this disc arrived I had not ever heard the remaining two works in the programme. The Te Deum is an attractive piece with solo sections for alto, tenor and bass singers interspersed with choruses. The Wedding Anthem adopts a similar layout but adds a soprano to the solo team. Neither work maintains the musical interest of the Birthday Ode but each has passages of considerable charm. In the Te Deum it is the alto solo and chorus with obbligato flute which are, perhaps, the most affecting, while the Wedding Anthem contains an expressive bass solo with obbligato cello.
As I have implied, there is much to be admired in the performances mainly thanks to the fine cast of solo singers. The choir of New College, Oxford are excellent but the over-reverberant acoustic hardly does them justice and they sound too distant for much of the time. The King's Consort consist of many experienced players yet the end result is too often scrappy giving the impression of a project put together hastily and without sufficient rehearsal. Even so, an imaginative programme of infrequently performed music by a great composer is always welcome and this one should make wide appeal.'