Composer of the Week: Handel

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: George Frideric Handel (1685-1759): Bridge-building: 1735-1736

Consequences: 1733-1734

Bridge-building: 1735-1736

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), Bridge-building: 1735-1736

Donald Macleod on how Handel survived the threat from the Opera of the Nobility.

Donald Macleod explores how, against the odds, Handel’s career survived the threat posed by the rival Opera of the Nobility.

This week of programmes looks at Handel’s life and work during an important decade of his life. The 1730s saw Handel create some of his best-loved works, but also saw him fall out with singers and patrons in London, endure a stroke and attendant poor mental health, and mourn the death of one of his chief supporters, Queen Caroline.

In this episode, Donald Macleod explores how Handel’s career survived the threat posed by the rival Opera of the Nobility, and with the opera Alcina, he had an instant success, vanquishing his opponents with 18 initial performances. He was back. And he was occasionally in a more conciliatory mood, writing the opera Atalanta to celebrate the marriage of the Prince of Wales, gambling that it might win back his support. Also during this time Handel introduced the concept of the organ concerto, during performances of his oratorios.

Opera: Alcina, HWV 34
Ombre pallide
Renée Fleming, soprano (Alcina)
Les Arts Florissants
William Christie, conductor

Oratorio: Alexander’s Feast, HWV 75
Air and Chorus: Bacchus, ever fair and young 
Chorus: The many rend the skies
Michael George, bass
The Sixteen
Symphony of Harmony and Invention
Harry Christophers, conductor

Concerto in B flat major, Op. 4 No. 6, HWV 294
Stephen Stubbs, lute
Andrew Lawrence-King, harp
Erin Headley, lirone
The Sixteen
Symphony of Harmony and Invention
Harry Christophers, conductor

Organ Concerto in G minor, Op. 4 No. 1, HWV 289 
I. Larghetto e staccato
IV. Andante
Richard Egarr, organ
Academy of Ancient Music

Opera: Atalanta, HWV 35
Aria: Lassa! ch'io t'ho perduta (Act 2)
Katalin Farkas, soprano (Atalanta)
Capella Savaria
Nicholas McGegan, conductor

Produced by Iain Chambers

Composer of the Week: George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod looks at Handel's life and work during an important decade of his life.

Donald Macleod looks at Handel's life and work during an important decade of his life, the 1730s, which saw Handel create some of his best-loved works.

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George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

Bridge-building: 1735-1736

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