National Orchestra of Wales
(Cerddorfa Genedlaethol Cymru)
(Leader, Louis Levitus)
Conducted by Warwick Braithwaite
The oratorio of Samson followed The Messiah, having been begun almost as soon as the earlier work was finished. Italian opera, in which Handel had won so many successes, had fallen into disfavour, and Deviamia, his last opera, produced early in 1741, enjoyed a run of only three performances. Henceforth it was oratorio and purely instrumental music in which his tireless energy was to find scope: the composition of The Messiah occupied him for only some three weeks, and Samson was composed almost as speedily. It had its first performance at Covent Garden Theatre in February, 1743.
The Overture is in the three sections which were then the customary form-a slow, pompous introduction, a movement in dance character (here it is a minuet in rhythm and spirit) and a bustling, energetic fugue.
