Berenice - MVSR2668 | Music

BERENICE, Regina di Egitto (HWV 38) is an opera composed by Georg Friedrich Händel in 1736/37. It consists of three acts and was written along with Händel’s other two operas ARMINIO and GIUSTINO within half a year. The enormous amount of work demanded of the composer by working on three operas within a very short time led to great physical and mental exhaustion on Händel’s part. This is often cited as the reason why BERENICE is not seen as one of the composer’s outstanding masterpieces. Critics, however, find the deficiency more in the opera’s dramatic composition than in its musical substance that is highly praised and estimated. The minuet (»Andante Larghetto«) is considered a special masterpiece. The English music historian Charles Burney (1726-1814) described it in his ”General History of Music” as “one of the most graceful and pleasing movements that has ever been composed”.

The German composer Siegfried Rundel arranged this work of simple beauty for wind orchestra. The manuscript of his arrangement, which was not completed before his death, was thereby carefully finished in his usual practical manner.