Vital & engaging: Handel's early English masque, Acis and Galatea, alongside his setting of Dryden's A Song for St Cecilia, harking back to concerts from 1739

Auguste Ottin
Polyphemus Surprising Acis and Galatea
1852-63, Luxembourg Gardens

Handel: Acis and Galatea (1718), Ode for St Cecilia; Carolyn Sampson, Laurence Kilsby, William Thomas, Jonathan Hanley, Archie Inns, Gabrieli, Paul McCreesh; London Handel Festival at Smith Square Hall
Reviewed 14 March 2026

Harking back to one of Handel's concerts from 1739, Paul McCreesh and Gabrieli presented vital performances of two contrasting works with engaging solos and fine instrumental playing. 

Handel's Acis and Galatea and his Ode for St Cecilia is not a particularly obvious pairing. Yet in 1739, when Handel presented his first London season without any Italian opera because the continental wars made recruiting Italian singers difficult, that is exactly what he did. The season included Alexander's Feast and initially Handel paired the Ode for St Cecilia with Alexander's Feast, but after the first performance he changed plans, perhaps wanting greater contrast. Instead, the Ode for St Cecilia was paired with Acis and Galatea, reverting to an adaptation of the work's original 1718 masque version rather than the grander serenata version Handel created in 1732.

On Saturday 14 March 2026, Paul McCreesh and Gabrieli evoked his concert at Smith Square Hall with the original 1718 version of Acis and Galatea alongside the Ode for St Cecilia. The cast for Acis and Galatea featured Laurence Kilsby and Carolyn Sampson in the title roles, plus William Thomas as Polyphemus, Jonathan Hanley as Damon and Archie Inns as Coridon. Then Kilsby and Sampson took the solo parts in the Ode for St Cecilia.

The inclusion of Acis and Galatea in the concert seemed somewhat a luxury for the festival given that it staged the 1718 version at Stone Nest in 2022, also with William Thomas as Polyphemus [see my review]. That said, experimenting with Handel's own somewhat unwieldy, by modern standards, concert programmes is exactly what this type of festival should be doing.

Paul McCreesh had evidently opted for playing up the differences between the two works. Whilst the Ode was a grand choral piece with substantial orchestra, Acis and Galatea was done in the original 1718 version with just five singers, no chorus and an orchestra of 14. The singers were placed in a row beside the orchestra and largely sang from scores, but there was still a valuable element of presentation, a demi-semi staging which brought out the work's nuances.

McCreesh took the Sinfonia at quite a lick and whilst there was a lovely sense of bounce to the playing, the opening bars felt slightly like a scramble. Carolyn Sampson made an engaging, almost winsome Galatea. Her opening air, 'Hush, ye pretty warbling quire' with its perky recorder solo, was full of charm, then 'As when the dove' was so ingratiating as to come perilously close to simpering. After Acis's death, Galatea's solo with chorus proved to be a fine contrast between Sampson's intimate duet with the solo oboe and the striking timbre, tone and rhythm of the male chorus. Her final air, 'Heart, the seat of soft delight' was full of quiet elegance, the bubbling recorders complementing the sense of quiet satisfaction Sampson brought to the piece.

Laurence Kilsby brought fine, vibrant tone and an almost heroic air to 'Where shall I seek the charming fair', contrasting with the gentle shapely phrases of 'Love in her eyes sits playing'. For 'Love sounds th'alarm' his heroic tone returned allied to a rather dance-like feel that McCreesh brought to the music. As he dies, Acis gets just a two-line accompagnato but Kilsby really made it matter.

In Acis and Galatea's duet, 'Happy we', Sampson and Kilsby bubbled away delightfully, whilst in the crucial trio their lyrical duet contrasted with the crisp rhythms of the accompaniment and William Thomas's vivid, resonant tones as Polyphemus.

Thomas did not mug or attempt excessive comedy, his was quite a serious Polyphemus, one we could almost feel sorry for. But Thomas allied this to some wonderfully resonant tones. 'O ruddier than the cherry' was dark-toned yet finely nimble and allied to Rebecca Miles's delightfully perky sopranino recorder, and Thomas brought a lovely swagger to the following recitative. 'Cease to beauty to be suing' was taken seriously, with strikingly pointed accompaniment. His contribution to the trio vividly interrupted to lovers, who carried on oblivious.

Jonathan Hanley made an engaging Damon, singing 'Shepherd, what art thou pursuing' with lyric tone and lovely urgency, including some find passagework. 'Consider fond shepherd' was intimate, sung with fine-grained tone. Archie Inns made an elegant, ingratiating Coridon in 'Would you gain the tender creature'.

The choruses with their intriguing five-part, STTTB textures benefitted from the intimate, consort-style delivery that the five soloists gave us. We began with the light bubbling of 'Oh, the pleasure of the plains' but 'Wretched lovers' was striking for the highly detailed approach McCreesh and the five singers brought to the piece, style and emotion turning on a pin. 'Mourn ye muses' at an intimate elegance to it, but the final chorus was almost a bright dance.

After the interval the forces on stage had expanded considerably, with a chorus of 20 and similarly expanded orchestral forces. Dryden's text, 'A Song for St Cecilia's Day' was written in 1687 for the St Cecilia's Day celebrations sponsored by the Musical Society of London and set to music by Giovanni Battista Draghi. Handel would set two of Dryden's St Cecilia odes, this one and the one that became Alexander's Feast.

The 1687 ode focuses on the Pythagorean theory of harmonia mundi, that music was a central force in the Earth's creation which, whilst making Dryden's text somewhat obscure, did provide Handel with lots of musical source materials.

The overture moved from grand and stately, to a rather catchy scurrying before ending with a strong minuet. The opening was and recitative and accompagnato for Kilsby, with intriguing harmonies from the orchestra and the Kilsby creating something stirring and vivid, leading to a chorus where the clear choral tone contrasted with catchy rhythms in the accompaniment.

The first soprano air began with a wonderfully singing cello solo from Andrew Skidmore, which led to a duet between Skidmore's melodic so and the steadily unfolding elegant soprano line from Carolyn Sampson. The substantial air was striking not just for these melodic elements but for the freedom of Handel's construction.

With 'The trumpet's loud clangour' we turned to Laurence Kilsby and trumpet and drums in an air full of vibrant excitement leading to a stirring chorus, with two trumpets and drums, then an orchestral march that certainly went with a swing. Kilsby's second air, 'Sharp violins proclaim' featured, of course, perky string writing full of sharp accents, but Kilsby's contribution was enlivened by lively passagework.

After this, Handel seems to have lost interest in his tenor solo and all the remaining movements featured the soprano. 'But oh, what art can teach' featured a gentle organ solo from William Whitehead, contrasting with the more slow sustained soprano line. 'Orpheus could lead the savage race' was full of lively rhythms and passagework, though rather disappointingly Handel opted not to try and evoke Orpheus's lyre! A final accompagnato saw Sampson lauding St Cecilia before the final ensemble for soprano and chorus. Initially there were grand, expansive phrases passed between solo and choir leading to a rather grand yet lively chorus.

I have to confess that I cannot remember the last time I heard Handel's Ode for St Cecilia, and it was lovely to renew acquaintance in such a vital performance. The substantial programme did provide two satisfyingly contrasting works in performances that held our attention vividly throughout a long concert. 

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