Art Pursuits Short Course

GEORG FRIEDRICH HÄNDEL:
Dramatist and Humanist Supreme
London

with Richard Wigmore

Wednesdays, 12, 19 and 26 November 2008

Georg Friedrich Händel, long known almost exclusively as the creator of the Messiah and other sacred oratorios, the solemn, periwigged monument of Victorian imagination, is acknowledged today as one of the supreme musical dramatists. A man of indomitable energy and willpower, Händel was also the first great freelance composer, riding his luck in eighteenth-century London's heady yet precarious theatrical world. In these three study sessions, Richard Wigmore explores Händel's music and its social and political context, from his brilliant sojourns as a young man in Italy, through his turbulent years as dramatist and impresario in London, to the late oratorios, culminating in the sublime, disquieting masterpieces of his old age, Theodora and Jephtha.

The maximum number of students is 30.

About Richard Wigmore

Richard Wigmore is a music writer, broadcaster and lecturer, specialising in the Baroque and Classical periods, and in Lieder. He contributes regularly to the Daily Telegraph, BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone, broadcasts frequently on BBC Radio 3 and gives classes at the Trinity College of Music and at Birkbeck College. He has also led many tours for Martin Randall Travel (including the Schubertiade and the Salzburg summer and winter festivals) and Habsburg Heritage. Richard has published Schubert: the complete song texts (Gollancz) and is currently writing a study of Haydn's life and works for Faber.

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Tel and fax 01280 820307 info@artpursuits.com