Handel: The Occasional Oratorio /Gritton * Milne * Bowman * Ainsley * George * The King's Consort * King
You'll find no stereotypical Biblical characters inThe Occasional  Oratorio; there are no characters at all. This work is nothing but a blood- and-glory martial celebration Handel hastily threw together to raise London's  spirits in a crisis. (The "occasion" was the English counterattack against  Bonnie Prince Charlie's rebellion.) Handel composed almost no original music for  this work, instead lifting choice bits fromJudas Maccabeus,Comus,Athalia,Israel in Egypt--he even closes the work  withZadok the Priest!Handel aficionados will have great fun picking out  which numbers originated where. In fact, pretty much everyone will have fun  listening to this music (gloriously performed by Robert King and his regulars);  it is--as it were--a blast.--Matthew Westphal