Handel - Utrecht Te Deum & Jubilate - Anthem for the Foundling Hospital Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne Alceste / Conducted by Preston Hogwood / The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, The Academy of Ancient Music / Decca

UPC 028945807225

2X AUDIO CD

MADE IN GERMANY

TOTAL TIME: 156 minutes

George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (/ˈhændəl/; born Georg Friederich Händel; 23 February 1685 (O.S.) [(N.S.) 5 March] – 14 April 1759) was a German, later British, Baroque composer who spent the bulk of his career in London, becoming well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi and organ concertos. Handel received important training in Halle and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712; he became a naturalised British subject in 1727. He was strongly influenced both by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition. He would become a huge influence on classical composers such as Mozart and Beethoven.

Within fifteen years, Handel had started three commercial opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera. Musicologist Winton Dean writes that his operas show that "Handel was not only a great composer; he was a dramatic genius of the first order."^[6] As Alexander's Feast (1736) was well received, Handel made a transition to English choral works. After his success with Messiah (1742) he never composed an Italian opera again. Almost blind, and having lived in England for nearly fifty years, he died in 1759, a respected and rich man. His funeral was given full state honours, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey in London.