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): Rock bottom: 1737

Consequences: 1733-1734

Rock bottom: 1737

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), Rock bottom: 1737

Handel suffers a stroke, losing the use of his right arm and jeopardising his livelihood.

In 1737 Handel suffered a stroke, losing the use of his right arm. This threatened his whole way of life, not just as an acclaimed performer but as a composer.

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 1737, the year Handel suffered a stroke, losing the use of his right arm, and enduring attendant mental health problems. This threatened his whole way of life, not just as an acclaimed performer but as a composer. To make matters worse, his great patron Queen Caroline died. Handel quickly wrote one of his most affecting pieces, The Ways of Zion do Mourn. He rehabilitated at the vapour-baths of Aix-la-Chapelle and regained much of his strength. Meanwhile, the Opera of Nobility had folded, and he was reunited with singers he had previously worked with.

Opera: Arminio, HWV 36
Aria: Mira il ciel, vendrai d’Alcide (Act 3)
Juan Sancho, tenor (Varus)
Armonia Atenea
George Petrou conductor

Opera: Giustino, HWV 37 
Aria: Un vostro sguardo (Act 1) 
Duet: Mio bel tesoro! (Act 2)
Dawn Kotoski, soprano (Arminio)
Dorothea Röschmann, soprano (Ariadne)
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
Nicholas McGegan, conductor

Concerto Grosso in E minor, Op. 6 No. 3, HWV 321 
Academy of Ancient Music
Andrew Manze, conductor

Oratorio: Il trionfo del Tempo et del Disinganno, HWV 46a
Aria: Lascia la spina
Jennifer Smith (soprano)
Les Musiciens du Louvre
Marc Minkowski, conductor

Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline: The Ways of Zion do Mourn
Introduction and Chorus: The Ways of Zion Do Mourn 
Bremen Baroque Orchestra
Wolfgang Helbich, conductor

Produced by Iain Chambers

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

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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)

Rock bottom: 1737

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