Musical Sunday

Handel called his first English-language work Acis and Galatea a “masque,” which places the piece genre-wise between opera and secular oratorio. The triangular story about the beautiful nymph Galatea, her lover Acis, and the jealous cyclops Polyphemus is based on an episode from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The plot inspired Handel to write exquisite music, which he himself performed again several times and which was saved from oblivion not least by arrangements by Mozart and Mendelssohn.

Marcus Imbsweiler and Timo Jouko Herrmann give an overview of the multitude of musical means used and trace further peculiarities of this work.

Here, two enthusiasts have their say who have their very own linguistic approach to music. Imbsweiler has previously published novels and short stories about composers from Haydn to Shostakovich. Herrmann is guest conductor of the Heidelberg Symphony Orchestra; his rediscovery of the song of joy Per la ricuperata salute di Ofelia, composed by Salieri, Mozart and Cornetti, made him famous worldwide.