Handel Festival Japan

Time & Date: 19:00, Thursday, 13. 1. 2011
Venue: Hamarikyu Asahi Hall, Tokyo
Soloists: Hirohisa Tsuji (T: Acis); Nao Hirose (S: Galatea); Masato Makino (B: Polypheme); Hiromitsu Maeda (T: Damon)
Choir & Orchestra: CANNONS CONCERT CHAMBER CHOIR & ORCHESTRA
Conductor: Toshiki Misawa

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Greetings from the Chairman: We thank you all for coming to join our 8th Handel Festival Japan (HFJ 2010) today.; HFJ was founded back in 2003 with the aim to introduce a huge fascination of Handel's works to the public. We had been working to achieve this aim up to the year 2009, which was actually the 250 th anniversary of Handel's passing. From now onwards, HFJ would like to strive to enhance our activities even further with a refreshed mind.; We are going to perform ACIS AND GALATEA this time. This particular piece was actually performed in the 1st HFJ event ( i.e. HFJ 2003 ). As HFJ's main purpose is to introduce "unknown masterpieces of Handel's works" , ACIS AND GALATEA is one of his greatest works, and therefore it was a perfect masterpiece for our remarkable first project. We are very honored to mention that the performance of ACIS AND GALATEA in 2003 (by Mr. Takashi Watanabe as Conductor, Mr. Hirohisa Tsuji as ACIS and Ms. Naoco Kaketa as GALAT EA) received tributes from Mr. Osamu Horiuchi, Music Critic. Mr. Horiuchi was amazed to realize that the HFJ is not only a workshop to perform Handel works, but also it contains such a high standard of quality for its own performance (ref : "ONGAKU NO TOMO " Issue of February, 2004 , pp. 147-148 ). This compliment was indeed what I wished for. I myself have tremendous admiration for Handel and hence, have been making an effort to approach his mysterious works on his composition every day. I have always had a strong belief that our research progress can only be persuasive through the actual performing of Handel's works to the public, especially with the high quality performance. This is exactly why I founded the HFJ. It was certainly my pleasure to receive Mr. Horiuchi's compliment for the first HFJ event. His compliment furthermore has encouraged me tremendously, as it clearly proved that my commitment has been related to this fruitful result. Recently, I have begun to believe one thing. That is that results of my research on Handel's works can be conveyed to others more directly, by conducting his pieces by myself. Therefore, I have decided to have this unknown masterpiece ACIS AND GALATEA once again today and to conduct it by myself. I truly wish that today's performance can help us to raise the curtain for Handel's unique composing style and to bring out fascinating nature of Handel works, which differs from ME SSIAH.; I am very fortunate to have an opportunity today to make all this possible with wonderful musicians performing today.; Last but not least, our special thanks go to "The Asahi Shimbun Foundation for the Arts", "The Mitsubishi UF J Trust Foundation for t h e Arts" , "TOKYO KOTEN GA KKI CENTRE", "Zimaku Plus", "Ikegami Lutheran Church", "HFJ Support Club: HANDELIAN " and "GEORG-FRIEDRICH-HANDEL-GESELLSCHAFT, Internationale Vereinigung, e.V." for their remarkable support and cooperation.; Toshiki Misawa; Chairman; Committee of Handel Festival Japan; (Translated by Naoko Oshima)

Greeting: Since 2003 the Handel Festival Japan has established a rich and outstanding tradition of Handel performances and Handel scholarship in Japan – George Frideric Handel is no longer a purely European or occidental phenomenon, but has become a composer in globalimens ions, a composer of the 18 th century for the ONE WORLD of the 21th century.; The International Handel Society which is based in Halle an der Saale (Germany) and acts as the editor of the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe – the new collected critical edition of works – strongly supports the various attempts of the Handel Festival Japan to make known Handel's music to a broader public. This time Handel's ACIS AND GALATEA forms the core of the Festival, a work that, like no other of Handel's com positions, was recomposed and rearranged over a wide period of time:; Starting with the Italian Serenata ACI, GALATEA E POLIFEMO (HWV 72), performed in Naples in 1708, we see Handel pick up the plot in the English two-part Masque ACIS AND GALATEA (HWV 49 a), created for a private performance in Cannons in June 1718. In 1732 the piece was performed in London (Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre) in a strongly revised version as three-act bilingual serenata (HWV 49b) for an expanded orchestra and choir. Later on, the English Masque was revised again for performances in London (1739/40) and Dublin (1742). Not only this rich history of recompositions and revisions argues for the exceptional position of this masterpiece, but also the fact that Wolfgang Amadé Mozart and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy arranged and performed the Masque in the late 18th and 19th centuries.; My best wishes for a successful and inspiring, exhilarating and profound lecture on and performance of Handel's masterpiece during the Handel Festival Japan 2010 !; Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hirschmann; President of the Georg-Friedrich-Händel-Gesellschaft e. V. Internationale Vereinigung (Sitz Halle)