George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) was one of the all-time great composers. Restless and resourceful, Handel was a workaholic musician of great charisma with a genius for invention. For most of his life—at least during his time in London—Handel operated as

The Austrian poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke wrote, “Fame is nothing but the sum total of misunderstandings that cling to a name.” George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) is almost universally acknowledged as one of the greatest composers of his age,

To celebrate the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which ultimately ended the War of Austrian Succession, King George II of Great Britain hosted a gargantuan festival on 27 April 1749. Citizens from all corners of the kingdom arrived in London to witness

The Fishamble Street Musick Hall in Dublin was abuzz with jittery electricity on 13 April 1742. The musical superstar George Frideric Handel was ready to present his oratorio Messiah to the public, and the audience reached a record 700 listeners.

In the Baroque era, the Concerto grosso, the big concerto, was the workhorse genre. Unlike a regular concerto where one soloist contrasted with the orchestra, in a concerto grosso a small group of soloists, known as the concertino alternates with

I am sure you have heard numerous piano students slugging their way through the final movement of George Frideric Handel’s Suite No. 5 in E major. This particular movement has gained notoriety because it carries the imaginative nickname “The Harmonious

George Frideric Handel premiered his opera Serse on 15 April 1738 at the King’s Theatre, Haymarket in London. The composer had decided on a semi-historical plot involving the hot-blooded Persian tyrant Xerxes. It is a rather complicated plot, typical of

There was great confusion at the premiere of Handel’s “Serse” at the King’s Theatre, Haymarket on 15 April 1738! I know you are asking yourself why that might have been the case? After all, Handel was setting the London stages