` How refreshing, to read a book about music written for a music lover & not a musicologist. In clear, lucid, entertaining prose, Jane Glover makes those of us who lack musical literacy better understand & appreciate Handel`s divinity.`
- Donna Leon, author of Handel`s Bestiary & the Inspector Brunetti mysteries Handel in London tells the story of a young German composer who in 1712, followed his princely master to London & would remain there for the rest of his life. That master would become King George II & the composer was George Frideric Handel. Handel, then still only twenty-seven & largely self-taught, would be at the heart of musical activity in London for the next four decades, composing masterpiece after masterpiece, whether the glorious coronation anthem, Zadok the Priest, operas such as Giulio Cesare, Rinaldo & Alcina or the great oratorios, culminating, of course, in Messiah. Here, Jane Glover, who has conducted Handel`s work in opera houses & concert halls throughout the world, draws on her profound understanding of music & musicians to tell Handel`s story. It is a story of music-making & musicianship, of practices & practicalities, but also of courts & cabals, of theatrical rivalries & of eighteenth-century society. It is also, of course, the story of some of the most remarkable music ever written, music that has been played & sung, & loved, in this country
- & throughout the world
- for three hundred years.