Händel: Joshua Presented by Liszt Academy

Of Händel’s late oratorios, Joshua was one of the most popular. Of those oratorios composed after Samson, only Judas Maccabeus was presented more frequently during the lifetime of the composer. A large part of the latter’s popularity was due to the movement beginning “See the conqu’ring hero comes”, which Händel had originally written for Joshua, being transferred to the work following the first season of performances. Dramatic events such as the fall of the walls of Jericho, the setting on fire and destruction of the city, how Joshua halts the movement of the Sun and the Moon in the sky, and how he shapes an army out of defeated troops, not to speak of the triumphant return of the warrior from battle, frame a heroic story that would inspire any composer. Perhaps it comes as no surprise that the destruction of Jericho in the second act inspired Händel to write one of his greatest and most thunderous choral movements, a movement which had such a huge impact on Haydn at a performance of the work in Westminster Cathedral in 1791.