Belshazzar

Album by George Frideric Handel & Anthony Rolfe Johnson & Arleen Augér & Catherine Robbin & James Bowman & David Wilson‐Johnson & The English Concert & The English Concert Choir & Trevor Pinnock

Belshazzar is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel, first performed in 1745. The work features Baroque orchestration with prominent choral writing and solo arias, exemplifying Handel's mature English oratorio style and his dramatic setting of biblical narrative within the mid-18th-century London repertory.
First released: 1990

Tracklist

  1. 1.
    Belshazzar: Overture
    4:38
  2. 2.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 4, Air "Let festal joy triumphant reign!" (Belshazzar)
    5:02
  3. 3.
    Belshazzar: Act 2, Scene 2, A Sinfony (Allegro Postillions)
    1:42
  4. 4.
    Belshazzar: Act 2, Scene 2, Recitativo "Ye sages! welcome always to your king" (Belshazzar); Recitativo "Alas! too hard a task the king imposes" (Wise Men)
    1:05
  5. 5.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 1, Accompagnato ed Arioso "Vain, fluctuating state of human empire!" (Nitocris)
    5:05
  6. 6.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 4, Recitativo "For you, my friends" (Belshazzar, Nitocris)
    0:53
  7. 7.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 4, Air "The leafy honours of the field" (Nitocris)
    7:33
  8. 8.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 1, Air "Thou, God most high, and Thou alone" (Nitocris)
    3:58
  9. 9.
    Belshazzar: Act 2, Scene 2, Chorus "Oh misery! - oh terror! - hopeless grief!"
    1:50
  10. 10.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 1, Recitativo "The fate of Babylon, I fear, is nigh" (Nitocris, Daniel)
    1:14
  11. 11.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 4, Recitativo "It is the custom, I may say, the law" (Belshazzar, Nitocris)
    1:22
  12. 12.
    Belshazzar: Act 2, Scene 2, Recitativo "Oh king! live for ever!" (Nitocris, Belshazzar)
    1:39
  13. 13.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 4, Chorus "Recall, oh king! thy rash command" (Jews)
    3:53
  14. 14.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 1, Air "Lament not thus, oh Queen, in vain!" (Daniel)
    4:55
  15. 15.
    Belshazzar: Act 2, Scene 2, Air "No! to thyself thy trifles be" (Daniel)
    1:30
  16. 16.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 2, Chorus "Behold, by Persia's hero made" (Babylonians)
    2:48
  17. 17.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 4, Recitativo "They tell you true" (Nitocris, Belshazzar)
    1:22
  18. 18.
    Belshazzar: Act 2, Scene 2, Accompagnato "Yet, to obey his dread command" (Daniel)
    3:13
  19. 19.
    Belshazzar: Act 2, Scene 2, Recitativo "Oh sentence too severe!" (Nitocris); Air "Regard, oh son, my flowing tears" (Nitocris)
    7:00
  20. 20.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 2, Recitativo "Well may they laugh" (Gobrias, Cyrus); Accompagnato "Oh memory! Still bitter to my soul" (Gobrias)
    1:18
  21. 21.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 4, Duet "Oh dearer than my life, forbear!" (Nitocris, Belshazzar)
    7:15
  22. 22.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 2, Air "Opprest with never-ceasing grief" (Gobrias)
    3:33
  23. 23.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 4, Chorus "By slow degrees the wrath of God" (Jews)
    4:24
  24. 24.
    Belshazzar: Act 2, Scene 3, Air "Oh God of Truth! oh faithful guide!" (Cyrus)
    4:38
  25. 25.
    Belshazzar: Act 2, Scene 1, Chorus "See, from his post Euphrates flies!"
    6:26
  26. 26.
    Belshazzar: Act 2, Scene 3, Recitativo "You, Gobrias, lead directry to the palace" (Cyrus)
    1:01
  27. 27.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 2, Air "Dry thoes unavailing tears" (Cyrus)
    2:12
  28. 28.
    Belshazzar: Act 2, Scene 1, Recitativo "You see, my friends, a path" (Cyrus)
    0:45
  29. 29.
    Belshazzar: Act 2, Scene 3, Chorus "Oh glorious prince!"
    4:54
  30. 30.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 2, Resitativo "Be comforted: safe though the tyrant seem"; Accompagnato "Methought, as on the bank of deep Euphrates" (Cyrus)
    2:35
  31. 31.
    Belshazzar: Act 3, Scene 1, Air "Alternate hopes and fears" (Nitocris)
    4:27
  32. 32.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 2, Recitativo "Now, tell me, Gobrias" (Cyrus, Gobrias)
    1:14
  33. 33.
    Belshazzar: Act 2, Scene 1, Air "Amaz'd to find the foe so near" (Cyrus)
    4:23
  34. 34.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 2, Air "Behold the monstrous human beast" (Gobrias)
    3:16
  35. 35.
    Belshazzar: Act 2, Scene 1, Chorus "To arms, to arms! no more delay!" (Persians)
    0:35
  36. 36.
    Belshazzar: Act 3, Scene 1, Recitativo "Fain would I hope" (Nitocris, Daniel)
    0:22
  37. 37.
    Belshazzar: Act 2, Scene 2, Chorus "Ye tutelar gods of our empire"
    2:58
  38. 38.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 2, Recitativo "Can you then think it strange" (Cyrus)
    0:15
  39. 39.
    Belshazzar: Act 3, Scene 1, Air "Can the black Aethiop change his skin?" (Daniel)
    2:26
  40. 40.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 2, Air "Great God! who, yet but darkly known" (Cyrus)
    3:49
  41. 41.
    Belshazzar: Act 2, Scene 2, Air "Let the deep bowl thy praise confess" (Belshazzar)
    2:38
  42. 42.
    Belshazzar: Act 3, Scene 1, Recitativo "My hopes revive" (Nitocris, Arioch, Messenger)
    1:51
  43. 43.
    Belshazzar: Act 3, Scene 1, Chorus "Bel boweth down" (Jews)
    1:31
  44. 44.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 2, Recitativo "My friends, be confident" (Cyrus)
    0:41
  45. 45.
    Belshazzar: Act 2, Scene 2, Accompagnato "Where is the God of Judah's boasted pow'r?" (Belshazzar, Chorus)
    2:41
  46. 46.
    Belshazzar: Act 2, Scene 2, Recitativo "Call all my Wise Men" (Belshazzar)
    0:21
  47. 47.
    Belshazzar: Act 3, Scene 2, Air "I thank thee, Sesach" (Belshazzar)
    1:37
  48. 48.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 2, Chorus "All empires upon God depend"
    3:15
  49. 49.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 3, Air "Oh sacred oracles of Truth!" (Daniel)
    5:13
  50. 50.
    Belshazzar: Act 3, Scene 2, A Martial Symphony
    0:39
  51. 51.
    Belshazzar: Act 3, Scene 3, Air "To pow'r immortal my first thanks" (Gobrias)
    2:44
  52. 52.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 3, Accompagnato "Rejoice, my countrymen"; Air "Thus saith the Lord to Cyrus" (Daniel)
    2:59
  53. 53.
    Belshazzar: Act 3, Scene 3, Recitativo "Be it thy care, good Gobrias" (Cyrus); Air "Destructive War, thy limits know" (Cyrus)
    2:55
  54. 54.
    Belshazzar: Act 1, Scene 3, Chorus, "Sing, oh ye heav'ns!"
    4:10
  55. 55.
    Belshazzar: Act 3, Scene 3, Duet "Great victor, at your feet I bow" (Nitocris, Cyrus)
    3:58
  56. 56.
    Belshazzar: Act 3, Scene 3, Recitativo "Say, venerable prophet" (Cyrus, Daniel)
    0:55
  57. 57.
    Belshazzar: Act 3, Scene 3, Soli & Chorus "Tell it out among the heathen"
    1:37
  58. 58.
    Belshazzar: Act 3, Scene 3, Accompagnato "Yes, I will build thy city" (Cyrus)
    2:22
  59. 59.
    Belshazzar: Act 3, Scene 3, Soli & Chorus "I will magnify thee" (Daniel, Nitocris, Chorus)
    5:26

Credits