Handel: The Man & His Music

'This expanded edition of a book Keates published 23 years ago takes in a wealth of new knowledge, and combines biographical and musicological analysis in a way that will appeal both to the general reader and the aficionado... With its astute commentaries on the operas, this book makes a brilliantly lucid guide to Handel's evolving art.' Independent Jonathan Keates's original biography of Handel was hailed as a masterpiece on its publication in 1985. This fully revised and updated new edition published to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the composer's death charts in detail Handel's life, from his youth in Germany, through his brilliantly successful Italian sojourn, to the opulence and squalor of Georgian London where he made his permanent home. For over two decades Handel was absorbed in London's heady but precarious operatic world. But even his phenomenal energy and determination could not overcome the public's growing indifference to Italian opera in the 1730s, and he turned finally to oratorio, a genre which he made peculiarly his own and in which he created some of his finest works, such as Saul, Messiah, Belshazzar and Jeptha. Over the last two decades a complete revolution in Handel's status has taken place. He is now seen both as a titanic figure in music, whose compositions have found a permanent place in the international repertoire, and as one of the world's favourite composers, with snatches of his work accompanying weddings, funerals and television commercials the world over. Skilfully interwoven with the account of Handel's life are commentaries on all his major works, as well as many less familiar pieces by this most inventive, expressive and captivating of composers. Handel was an extraordinary genius, whose career abounded in reversals that would have crushed anyone with less resilience and willpower, and Jonathan Keates writes about his life and work with sympathy and scrutiny. 'The music is the thing and Keates gives it full volume' The Times 'Keates appraises his works with passionate scrutiny, capturing superbly the increasing solitude of Handel's English years, and his "shrewd entrepreneurship" in tracing London's shifting taste from opera to oratorio.' The Sunday Times 'An 18th-century mix of pleasure and instruction...As well as having magisterial critical judgments, this is a book rich in dry humour and telling anecdote.' SpectatorKeates, Jonathan is the author of 'Handel: The Man & His Music', published 2010 under ISBN 9781845951153 and ISBN 1845951158.