Synopsis
'How refreshing, to read a book about music written for a music lover and not a musicologist. In clear, lucid, entertaining prose, Jane Glover makes those of us who lack musical literacy better understand and appreciate Handel’s divinity' – Donna Leon, author of Handel's Bestiary and the Inspector Brunetti mysteries
Handel in London is the profound exploration of the life and legacy of the self-taught musical prodigy, George Frideric Handel. From his modest beginnings in Germany to his meteoric rise in the heart of Georgian London, Handel's life was as melodious as his compositions.
Handel, only twenty-seven, would travel to London and be at the heart of musical activity in the city for the next four decades, composing masterpiece after masterpiece, including the glorious coronation anthem, Zadok the Priest, operas such as Giulio Cesare, Rinaldo and Alcina or the great oratorios, culminating, of course, in Messiah.
Jane Glover, who has conducted Handel's work in opera houses and concert halls across the globe, draws on her profound understanding of music and musicians to tell Handel’s story. It is a story of music-making and musicianship, of practices and practicalities, but also of courts and cabals, of theatrical rivalries and eighteenth-century society. It is also the story of some of the most remarkable music ever written, music that has been played, sung and loved throughout the world for over three hundred years.
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Reviews
“Handel’s workload leaves one breathless. Reading, in Jane Glover’s beautiful prose, about the astonishing succession of masterpieces he composed is almost overwhelming. As is the schedule for the singers and musicians who learned one lengthy opera whilst performing another. I now have a much clearer picture of the man himself as he adapted his operas to suit the singers at his disposal, rewriting arias and nurturing young artists, and of his generosity in all he did for the Foundling Hospital. I’m full of admiration for the subject of the book, as I am for its author.”Dame Felicity Lott
“Behind Jane Glover's baton lurks a brilliant explainer in words, as well as music, able to unravel the threads of musical technique, performance history, and social and political events, exploring each before braiding them tightly together to weave a brightly coloured tapestry of Handel, of his music, and of the world about him. Handel in London is an education, and a delight.”Judith Flanders
“Delightfully readable, informed and enlivened like no other Handel biography by Jane Glover’s understanding of a professional music director’s life.”Dr Ruth Smith, author of Handel's Oratorios and Eighteenth-Century Thought
“Jane Glover gives us a welcome portrait of Handel as a hard-working composer and conductor. She makes us feel the bruising schedule he set for himself, and for all who worked with him, from the point of view of a conductor who knows full well what it takes to mount Handel’s great opera or oratorios. She details Handel’s uncanny ability to choose his singers when given the opportunity, and she illustrates his amazing skill for writing to the strengths of all his singers, while also bringing to life the characters they portrayed.”Professor Ellen T. Harris
