The work was identified by Hans Joachim Marx, professor at the University of Hamburg.

[1] A note in the Sunday Telegraph on 11 March 2001 announced "Lost work by Handel could rival Messiah / An unknown choral work by Handel that some music scholars believe will come to be regarded as significant as Messiah has been discovered in the library of the Royal Academy of Music", but that was a sensational heading, whereas the article described the work correctly.

Curtis Price, the principal of the Academy, testified: "The music is fresh, exuberant and a little wild in places, but unmistakably Handel."

A second performance was given at the International Händel Göttingen Festival on 3 June 2001 by Dominique Labelle with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Nicholas McGegan.

[1] Katia Plaschka performed it in 2003 in the Unionskirche, Idstein, along with Handel's Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate.