Handel’s Utrecht Te Deum HWV 278 enthralled London audiences right from its first performance, and it continues to do so today in concert halls and churches all over the world. It was performed for the first time in a festive service on 13 July 1713 in St. Paul’s Cathedral to celebrate the Peace marking the end of the twelve year-long War of the Spanish Succession in 1713. The Te Deum was the first commission by the English royal house and was also Handel’s first sacred work in the English l...