Handel: Chandos Te Deum & Chandos Anthem No.8

In 1717, Handel was in dire straits. Living in London, his pension of 200 pounds a year for teaching the Royal princesses had stopped, and the public's enthusiasm for opera had faded. Fortunately, he was to gain a new patron: James Brydges, Earl of Carnarvon and Duke of Chandos. Brydges offered Handel residence at Cannons, his newly built palace in Edgware, then a rural area outside London. Set up as a rival court to King George I, he employed Handel to replace Johann Pepusch as Kapellmeister. Among his commissions were the Chandos Anthems and Chandos Te Deum. However, the Duke's reign was short-lived. Brydges lost his fortune in the financial crisis of 1720 and Cannons House was demolished - it's treasures sold off to pay debts. Handel's glorious music, performed here by the London Handel Orchestra led by Adrian Butterfield, remains as a reminder of the brief stardom of an ill-fated Duke.