Handel - The Genius Of Spiritual Pop

George Frideric Handel is my favourite composer of all times, definitely one of the greatest who have ever walked on earth. I chime in here with such grands as Bach who apparently said "[Handel] is the only person I would wish to see before I die, and the only person I would wish to be, were I not Bach."; then Mozart who is reputed to have said of him "Handel understands effect better than any of us. When he chooses, he strikes like a thunder bolt", and to Beethoven to whom he was "the master of us all".

In my eyes Handel's Messiah by far the pinnacle of human musical genius and I even happen to know the whole libretto by heart but his many most beautiful operas and oratorios also deserve more exposure then they get.

His music is an oddity, a sort of hybrid the way it stands one foot in Baroque and the other in the more modern Romantic tradition. Born German and later a naturalized British subject, his pensive, lofty philosophical Germanic streak is tempered by the Anglo-Saxon demand to be popular and profitable into the unrivalled ability to combine the sublimest heights of spiritual epiphanies with very catchy, almost pop melodies.

Quite poignantly, he wrote and produced The Messiah at a sort of breakpoint when when he was old, broke and physically sick, but it only seems to have made his spirit soar so high as to compose music that sounds exactly how angels should sing in Heaven praising Lord. They say something like "Talents need suffering to become geniuses", this may have been the case here.

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I wholeheartedly agree with the Anglo-Saxon tradition to stand up to full attention when listening to Hallelujah, how can you not? I have heard it on many on occasion from Bangkok to Amsterdam and it never fails to reduce me to cathartic tears.

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Ombra Mai Fu, his most famous operatic piece was written for a counter-tenor but I prefer it in Bryn Terfel's very cool and heartfelt baritone rendition.

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A mind-boggling modern glimpse into how Handel's secular arias were supposed to be sung by counter-tenors. Derek Lee Ragin will blow your mind off.

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In recent years there have cropped up a number of very interesting modern productions of Handel's Opera, you can sometimes catch those on Sunday evenings on the Mezzo Channel. I quite enjoy those because their understated post-modern mise-en-scène does not distract from the superb quality of singing performance. This is a bit of Giulio Cesare by Opus Arte:

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This awe-inspiring anthem, Zadok the Priest, will definitely send shivers down your spine. No wonder British royalty have used it for their coronation ceremonies since George II. I love the understated way that the introduction builds up to but still does not quite prepare you for the overwhelming regal assault of the mighty choir. The contrast is as close to orgasmic as you can ever expect from music.