Handel Athalia (HWV 52) Urtext vocal score

The oratorio “Athalia” tells the Old Testament story of the Queen Athalia . Handel composed it in 1733 for Oxford University where it was first performed later that year during the celebrations for the awarding of honorary degrees. The great success of this performance is generally regarded as a reason for Handel’s renewed interest in the oratorio form. As was frequently the case, Handel also carried on composing this work after the first performance. Thus, for the version which was performed in London in 1735, he introduced numbers in Italian for the Italian singer Carestini in the role of Joad . He also ended the work with an organ concerto. For the performance in 1756 he drew on other works for the third act.
Conversely, large parts of the music to Athalia form the basis for other works by Handel such as “Parnasso in festa” (HWV 73) and the Wedding Anthem (HWV 262).

The piano reduction by Andreas Köhs , based on the Urtext of the “Halle Handel” Edition, includes the main version of 1733 together with an appendix containing the versions of 1735 and 1756 as well as the outline of a planned version of 1743 which was not performed.

Title	Athalia HWV 52, Oratorio in three parts
Detailed instrumentation	Full orchestra, Soprano solo (3), Alto solo, Bass solo, Tenor solo (2)
Arranger	Köhs, Andreas
Editor	Blaut, Stephan
Product format	Piano reduction, Urtext edition
Language(s) of work	Italian, English
Level of difficulty	4
Grade (UK)	8
Publisher	Barenreiter
Binding	Paperback
Print run	1st printing 2008
Pages	XVII, 409
Weight	1053g
Size	27 x 19cm