Last Thursday, 22 March, became our Handel day in London: we visited the Handel house in Mayfair and his statue, and went to a performance of his oratorio Esther in the evening.
The two towering figures in European baroque music are Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel – both born in 1685. Handel is the great composer of London, though he was born in Halle in northern Germany. His musical career began in Hamburg as a violinist and harpsichordist in the opera orchestra, he travelled widely in Italy writing operas and oratorios in the Italian style, and then returned to Hanover in Germany. In 1710 the Elector of Hanover had his eye on the English throne and gave Handel leave to work in London as a means of strengthening Hanoverian ties with the city. When George became King of England in 1714, Handel lived there until his death in 1759, becoming a naturalised British subject in 1727.
Handel’s experience in Germany, Italy, England and France gave him a virtuoso command of a wide range of musical forms: opera, oratorio, ceremonial works for grand occasions, cantatas, concertos. He was a master of melody and possessed a highly developed sense of drama. He was also a prolific composer: 42 operas, 29 oratorios, 120 cantatas, 16 organ concertos, two sets of concerti grossi, and numerous other works.
The Handel museum now occupies two floors of the building where the composer lived for the last 36 years of his life. The kitchen was in the basement and the ground floor had a parlour facing on to the street where Handel sold his music and tickets for his concerts. He worked on the first floor which included a large music room where he composed, rehearsed, performed on his harpsichord for small groups, and hosted dinner guests. On the floor above he had a bedroom and a dressing room. Although it originally had no electricity, no central heating, no plumbing nor bathroom, the building is reckoned among the better examples of a Georgian townhouse in modern London.
Five years earlier, in 1718, Handel had written the oratorio, Esther. We attended a performance of this work in the Wigmore Hall to mark its tercentenary. The Wigmore Hall is considered to have one of the best acoustics for classical music in Europe. It was built between 1899 and 1901 by the piano manufacturer Bechstein, whose showroom was next door. It has seats for just over 500 people.
Esther is not among Handel’s greatest scores, but it is a landmark work: the first oratorio written in English and performed in Britain. The libretto is episodic and lacks continuity; the noted poet Alexander Pope may have contributed to it, but it bears the marks of several hands. Various parts of the score come across well, including several fine choruses. The work concludes with a typically fine Handelian finale, which even at this early stage of the composer’s career demonstrates his mastery of large choral structures. For the next twenty years Handel turned to the Italian operatic style, composing most of those 42 operas.
Handel’s return to the oratorio form in 1738 may have been the result of public amusements, including operas and plays, being suspended during Lent, Lent thus becoming the oratorio season. It may also have been the result of the collapse of the major opera theatres in London at the time. Whatever the cause, it resulted in the composition of one of the most popular pieces of music ever written: Messiah. In 1741 Handel visited Ireland, seeking a change from London and no doubt keen to make some money. He wrote Messiah in about three weeks for its first performance in April 1742.
Such was Handel’s fame that in 1738 a French sculptor, Louis François Roubiliac, completed his statue. The statue was commissioned by Jonathan Tyers who had it placed in the Spring Gardens at Vauxhall, which he was making into a social meeting place for the well-to-do and cultivated. The statue became so celebrated that it was featured in advertisements for the pleasure gardens. The work itself is important in the history of sculpture, firstly because it depicts a commoner – sculptures up until this time only portrayed mythical, royal or military figures – and secondly because Handel is depicted in casual dress – cloth headwear, no wig, open collar, slippers on his feet. The statue, currently displayed in the Victoria and Albert museum, shows Handel holding the lyre of Orpheus whose music “calmed the savage beasts”, while a cherub at his feet writes down the music on sheets propped against a viol.
Green Park, now alongside Buckingham Palace, became the site of a famous moment in London life associated with Handel. In 1749 he composed music for the Royal Fireworks. The fireworks celebrated the Treaty of Aachen which ended the War of the Austrian Succession, the king watching the celebrations from a library window in St James’ Palace. Unfortunately the stage for the fireworks caught fire, a woman was hit by a firework which set her dress alight, a painter fell from a tree to his death, and a man drowned in a pond. The firework maker, Servandoni, challenged the Royal Comptroller of the Ordinance and Fireworks to a duel over payment, and the show cost a staggering £14,500.
After 1752 Handel lost sight in one eye. He continued to compose though his output diminished considerably. He died in his own home in 1759 and is buried in Westminster Abbey in the Poets and Musicians corner. Another Roubiliac sculpture of him stands on the wall of the South transept.
Reputedly quick-witted and humorous but also hot-tempered, Handel was a master of vocal writing, with a gift for story telling in music. He understood character and was able to depict emotional predicament musically. His music is fundamentally human: it exudes warmth and immediacy, along with a wonderful ability to engage an audience.
