Handel's "Israel in Egypt" at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation

Maestro T. Herbert Dimmock leads the Bach in Baltimore Choir and Orchestra and two choirs from our Student Exchange Program are joined by soprano, alto, tenor, and bass soloists in one of the greatest choral works ever composed: Handel Israel in Egypt. With over 100 musicians on stage, experience the epic story of the Israelites exodus from Egypt. The sounds of buzzing flies and leaping frogs, hailstones and lighting are all brilliantly evoked by the double choirs and orchestra dramatizing the plight of the Israelites from captivity in Egypt, through the plagues, pestilence, floods, and across the parted Red Sea to salvation. More than most of Handel’s oratorios, Israel in Egypt focuses on the choir, not the vocal soloists. The choir becomes the protagonist in the action of the story, representing entire nations of peoples. Handel was at the height of his fame when he composed Israel in Egypt in 1737–38, and he infused the work with an array of ingenious devices, colors, and textures to create wonder, drama, and meaningful resonance. As noted in John Elliot Gardner’s program notes: “1859 Henry Chorlye [asserted that] Israel in Egypt [is] 'something apart from, alone, and above all other works existing in descriptive choral music.' Every known technique in the choral repertoire is employed: choral recitative, arioso, fugue and double fugue, homophonic declamation, coloratura and the cut and thrust of two choirs in antiphony, This is combined with a rich orchestral accompaniment, which includes trombones in 13 choruses and trumpets in six, scarcely to be matched in the whole Baroque era. It is a work apart: unique in its epic conception and in the dazzling variety of its choral and orchestral writing.” You won’t want to miss this powerful and thrilling choral wonder that illuminates the strength of faith, solidarity, and moral conviction.