Collegium Vocale . Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin . Attilio Cremonesi

'Jephta' was not only Handel's last oratorio, but is quite simply his absolute masterpiece. He provides inimitable outlines of the psychology of the leading characters even more acutely, compellingly and in greater detail than in other, better-known oratorios. Jephta swears that if he wins on the battlefield he will make a sacrifice to the gods of the first person he meets. The fact that this turns out to be his daughter Iphis makes his life unendurable. Rarely has an inner struggle been so dramatically portrayed as in Jephta's great monologues, while the chorus constantly offers intense comment on events as in a Greek tragedy. When, ultimately, Jephta is on the point of collapse, we hear the sublime chorus 'How dark, O Lord, are Thy decrees', written at the moment Handel himself became permanently almost completely blind. An unparalleled drama that fully earns its place alongside Bach's great passions and Monteverdi's vespers. The perfect occasion for Attilio Cremonesi's conducting debut at deSingel.