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At age 21, Georg Frideric Handel (a native of Halle, Saxony-Anhalt) went south to Italy to pursue his composing and performing career. In 1707, he took up residence in Rome, with the support of several patrons, including Cardinal Carlo Colonna, who commissioned a set of pieces for a Carmelite Vespers service to be held at the Church of S. Maria del Monte Santo, in the Piazza del Popolo. The set includes Laudate pueri (with a virtuosic soprano solo) and the famous Dixit Dominus, one of Handel’s greatest works in this (indeed in any) period of his life. We feature these pieces along with other Carmelite motets and instrumental works to provide a vivid glimpse of the young prodigy at the peak of his powers in the glorious surroundings of the Eternal City.
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