BBC Music Magazine
September 2025
Choral Choice

Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen

Chandos Anthem No. 4 'O sing unto the Lord new song', HWV 249b
Chandos Anthem No. 3 'Have mercy upon me', HWV 248
Chandos Anthem No. 6 'As pants the hart of cooling streams', HWV 251b
Chandos Anthem No. 11 'Let God arise', HWV 256a

In the summer of 1717, after performing his Water Music during a royal cruise on the Thames, Handel began composing for James Brydges (1674-1744), who became the first Duke of Chandos and created the Cannons Concert at his estate in Cannons (near Edgware), with ten instrumentalists and three singers. Handel composed eleven anthems and a Te Deum for him from August 1717 onwards, as well as transposing and revising As pants the hart (HWV 251b). O sing unto the Lord a new song (HWV 249b) is an adaptation of an anthem written three years earlier for the Chapel Royal. The anthem Have mercy upon me, O God (HWV 248) was composed in 1717 and is a paraphrase of the Miserere. The Alleluia of Let God arise (HWV 256a) prefigures the famous Hallelujah chorus from Messiah (1741). Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen now revive these four Chandos anthems composed for Cannons with eight singers and eleven excellent instrumentalists.