An exploration of ‘heavenly’ Royal Weddings sets the theme for this concert dominated by Handel’s magnificent DIXIT DOMINUS.

D Buxtehude: Alles, was ihr tut mit Worten oder mit Werken BuxWV 4
(Whatsoever ye do in word or deed)

JS Bach: Der Herr denket an uns BWV 196
(The Lord is mindful of us)

GF Händel: Dixit Dominus HWV 232
(The Lord Said)

1707 was a turning point for Great Britain with the Acts of Union joining the Kingdoms of England and Scotland. Meanwhile, a more musical transition was taking place in Germany with the three protagonists of this concert:

Dietrich Buxtehude had died, and Bach and Handel embarked on new adventures in their careers. Both just 22, Bach had just accepted the post as organist at St Blasius in Mühlhausen, and Handel had moved from Hamburg to Rome at the invitation of the de’ Medici family.

Buxtehude’s Cantata Alles, was ihr tut sets a passage from Colossians often used at weddings: “As God’s chosen ones…’

Bach greatly admired Buxtehude, and his influence is keenly felt in Der Herr denket an uns which Bach is thought to have written for a wedding.

In the same year, Handel premièred his rousing Dixit Dominus in the church of Santa Maria in Montesanto in the Piazza del Popolo in Rome. A setting of one of the psalms used at Vespers, it refers to a monarch ruling over their enemies.