Everyone wanted to know who Beethoven’s favourite composer was.
Ludwig van Beethoven is unquestionably one of the greatest and most influential of all composers, and it was natural that visitors wanted to know whose music he admired most. Towards the end of a tragic life afflicted by deafness, loneliness and financial worries, one composer’s music brought him more solace than any other.
Handel’s anthem sets to glorious music words sung at English coronations for over a thousand years.
George Frederic Handel’s anthem ‘Zadok the Priest’, shamelessly plagiariased for UEFA’s ‘Champions League Anthem’, has been part of every coronation in England since 1727, and the words were chosen by a saint over a thousand years ago.
Handel’s German boss fired the composer for spending all his time in London. When they met again, it was... rather awkward.
George Frideric Handel was employed to write music for the court of George, Elector of Hanover in Germany. He preferred, however, to live in London and write music for Queen Anne.
The first thing George Frideric Handel’s oratorio ‘Messiah’ did was to set a hundred and forty-two prisoners free.
George Frideric Handel’s Oratorio ‘Messiah’ tells the story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, entirely through quotations from the Bible. Its premiere was given in Dublin during the Lenten fast, and from the very beginning it touched hearts and changed lives.