Handel in London
20 September 2018Synopsis
'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.
Details
20 September 2018
9781509882069Reviews
Remarkable ... Glover's command of detail is impressive ... Her beautiful descriptions of Handel's music sent me again and again, in mid-chapter, to my LPs and CDs to play the arias she had just described ... Handel in London is a delight to read,Richard Stokes, Financial Times
Written in elegant prose that wears its author's scrupulous scholarship lightly ... Glover deftly weaves musical analysis into her biographical flow. Her greatest achievement, however, is to give life and music a political and social context.Richard Morrison, The Times
Beautifully written ... This book's main achievement, though, is to evoke with admirable clarity and sympathy the rich, interdependent symbiosis between Handel, his singers, his audiences, the royal family and the great capital city that housed their life and work.Jessica Duchen, Sunday Times
Lively and warm ... It's refreshing to read a chronicle of Handel's years in London written by a renowned conductor and musicologist ... She wants us to love Handel's music as much as she does and she writes convincingly and fully about each work, singling out her favourite arias for mention, but always in a way that's readable by a music-loving lay person.Ysenda Maxtone Graham, Country Life
