HANDEL - ISRAEL IN EGYPT

George Frideric Handel was born Georg Friedrich Händel in Halle, Germany on February 23rd, 1865.
After the varying success of his Italian operas in London, Handel turned to composing oratorios set to English librettos. Many of these had biblical themes but only two used exclusively biblical words - Israel in Egypt and Messiah.
Handel began composing Israel in Egypt in 1738, completing it in 27 days. Its original title was Exodus. It was first performed in 1739. Unlike Messiah it comprises mostly choral items, as well as containing brilliant dramatic musical descriptions of the events of the plagues and exodus from Egypt with words taken from the Book of Exodus. It is one of Handel's greatest oratorios yet unbelievably it was a failure at first. Except for one performance in 1740, Handel did not perform it again for another 17 years.
Felix Mendelssohn championed not only the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, but also that of Handel. At the Lower Rhine Festival in Düsseldorf in May 1833 he conducted Handel's Israel in Egypt, Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony and his own Trumpet Overture. In March 1844 he conducted Handel's Israel in Egypt and Beethoven's Choral Symphony.
In 1845, while in England, Mendelssohn worked on an edition of Israel in Egypt for the Handel Society, himself composing an organ part for the oratorio.