Whether the exodus described in the pages of the Bible was a historical event – we cannot say with absolute certainty. The story of the Israelites leaving slavery, “out of the affliction of Egypt” was told by George Frideric Handel in the oratorio Israel in Egypt. The Book of Exodus is not a historical text in the modern sense of the word. The Old Testament narrative is a theological work – it seeks answers to questions about humans’ place in the world, talks about slavery, violence, community, faith and the experience of migration. It is easy to notice that the topics appearing on the pages of the Old Testament continue to be relevant, and the most pressing of them is migration.

At the level of the musical text, Handel’s work from 1738 is also an image of migration in the form of numerous borrowings made by the composer. Thanks to them, in 1738 he was able to complete the oratorio in just one month. In the first part of the work, he adapted his own mournful hymn, commemorating the deceased English Queen Caroline. He also used his own compositions for keyboard instruments, an arrangement of the Dixit Dominus psalm composed in Italy, as well as an aria from one of the so-called Chandos Anthems. Borrowings from other composers abound in Israel in Egypt. We will hear, processed to varying degrees: the secular cantata Qual prodigio by Alessandro Stradella, the Magnificat by Dionigi Erba, as well as music by Delphin Strungek, Johann Caspar Kerll, and even Giovanni Gabrieli. The composition is therefore a broad panorama of European Baroque music.

The oratorio, premiered in London in April 1739, did not initially impress the audience. It wasn't about lack of originality. Handel, using the work of others, followed common 18th-century practice. The first listeners expected a more operatic style from the work, most of which originally consisted of choral parts. The composer immediately took their opinion into account and modified the piece, increasing, among other things, number of arias. Despite this initial defeat of Israel in Egypt, it is today widely considered to be Handel's greatest oratorio after Messiah. During Wratislavia Cantans, we will hear them interpreted by soloists, Václav Luks and the two ensembles he founded – Collegium 1704 and Collegium Vocale 1704 – which are among the world’s best groups specialising in the performance of 17th- and 18th-century music.