by Stanley Sadie
The first of three programmes celebrating the life and work of the composer who was born 300 years ago, on 23 February 1685. For 250 years, George Frederic Handel has been at the centre of England's musical life. His anthem Zadok the Priest has been sung at every coronation since 1727, and his oratorio
Messiah has been performed more often here than anywhere else in the world.
Though he was born at Halle in Saxony and spoke all his life with a thick German accent, he came to regard England as his home and, when he died in 1759, he was buried among the greatest of his adopted compatriots in Westminster Abbey.
Narrated by John Rowe with Carl Duering as Handel and MICHAEL TUDOR BARNES, CAROLE BOYD, MARGOT BOYD, GWEN CHERRELL, WILLIAM EEDLE, NIGEL GRAHAM, GARARD GREEN, CLIFFORD NORGATE and JOHN RYE
Producer ALAN HAYDOCK Stereo
(Part 2 tomorrow at 2.0 pm)
BBC Music Guide - Handel Concertos by Stanley Sadie, £1.50, available from booksellers or [address removed]