Though Saxon by birth, Handel is often claimed by the English as one of their own. But during his early 20s, before England was even a glint in his eye, he spent a spell of three-and-a-half years, from summer 1706 to early 1710, travelling the patchwork of states we now know as Italy. He certainly chose an 'interesting' time to go; the War of the Spanish Succession was in full swing, and its reverberations were felt the length and breadth of the Italian peninsula. For most of the period he was based in Rome, but he also visited Florence, Naples and Venice, fulfilling major commissions in each city. All this week, Donald Macleod charts the composer's Italian progress, with the help of novelist, biographer and avid Handelian, Jonathan Keates.

The last of the week's programmes considers the subsequent reverberations of Handel's Italian experience: the Italian cantata movements immortalized in Messiah; the emergence of one of the composer's best-loved works, Acis and Galatea, from its Italian prototype; Handel's hommage to Corelli in his set of 12 concerti grossi; and the oratorio that framed his musical career - a 'triumph' of recycling. Show less