Handel in London
22 August 2019
Imprint: Picador
Synopsis
'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 tells the story of a young German composer...
Details
22 August 2019
464 pages
9781509882083
Imprint: Picador
Reviews
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
Handel’s workload leaves one breathless. Reading, in Jane Glover ’s beautiful prose, about the astonishing succession of masterpieces he composed is almost overwhelming. As is the schedule for the singers and musicians who learned one lengthy opera whilst performing another. I now have a much clearer picture of the man himself as he adapted his operas to suit the singers at his disposal, rewriting arias and nurturing young artists, and of his generosity in all he did for the Foundling Hospital. I’m full of admiration for the subject of the book, as I am for its author.Dame Felicity Lott
Behind Jane Glover's baton lurks a brilliant explainer in words, as well as music, able to unravel the threads of musical technique, performance history, and social and political events, exploring each before braiding them tightly together to weave a brightly coloured tapestry of Handel, of his music, and of the world about him. Handel in London is an education, and a delight.Judith Flanders
Delightfully readable, informed and enlivened like no other Handel biography by Jane Glover’s understanding of a professional music director’s life.Dr Ruth Smith, author of Handel's Oratorios and Eighteenth-Century Thought