Mendelssohn famously revived Bach’s St Matthew Passion, but he was also fascinated by the music of Handel, having studied his music on a visit to London in 1829. In 1833 he revised, reorchestrated and semi-staged (with a series of tableaux vivants) Handel’s great Old Testament oratorio Israel in Egypt. It has now been reconstructed by Robert King, and the results are fascinating – burbling clarinets supply continuo, added solo recitatives fill out the sequence of choral movements, and a totally Mendelssohnian overture now kicks off the story. Handel’s masterly depictions of frogs, plagues and other natural disasters in his choruses are enhanced (though with German texts) in this feisty performance.
