Handel's Easter Oratorio

Lucie Skeaping examines the background and music to Handel's moving 'Easter Oratorio' - La Resurrezione - which he wrote in his early twenties during his formative years in Rome.

Composed for Easter Day 1708, for a gala performance at the opulent Ruspoli Palace, featuring the finest musicians to hand, including an orchestra led by Archangelo Corelli, La Resurrezione (The Resurrection) is a dramatic recollection of events following Christ's crucifixion. In recent years Handel's "Easter Oratorio" as it's sometimes referred to, has attracted renewed interest and spawned several recordings.

Lucie relates the background and story of this youthful Handelian masterpiece, and illustrates the programme with a cross-section of performances taken from CD.