This remarkable book supplies a detailed musical analysis of many of the 70 dramatic works and other vocal and instrumental pieces he composed there. Aided by contemporary witness accounts, Glover paints a vivid picture of Handel, his music and his life in London ... One of Glover’s achievements is to bring alive the singers who performed in Handel’s operas and oratorios ... Glover’s command of detail is impressive ... Handel in London is a delight to read. It benefits enormously from being written by an expert who knows and loves the repertoire; and there is an extensive reader-friendly index.
Reading the conductor Jane Glover’s beautifully written account of George Frederick Handel’s professional life in the British capital, it might strike you that remarkably little has changed in the past 280-odd years ... Often this is not merely illuminating, but also touching ... But Glover can sometimes be too respectful of her subject, downplaying, for example, his reputedly irascible temper. In a perhaps slightly dutiful chronicling of opera after opera, she keeps technical terminology to a minimum. Still, she absolutely nails broader musical issues ... This book’s main achievement, though, is to evoke with admirable clarity and sympathy the rich, interdependent symbiosis between Handel, his singers, his audiences, the royal family and the great capital city that housed their life and work.
The merit of Handel in London: The Making of a Genius is to...focus on the mechanics and context of how Handel conceived and achieved music of deathless fascination ... The Handel we meet in Ms. Glover’s engaging narrative is a workaholic musician of great charisma with a genius for invention and a genuine desire to improve the state of humanity.
One of the most intriguing aspects of this biography is Handel's relations with members of the British monarchy, who offered continuing financial support for his musical aspirations. Another strength is its description of the cultural and political setting in which Handel worked. Remarkably, there is hardly a mention of Handel's personal life, for instance, his attitude toward women or religion. Moreover, there is no commentary on Handel's opinion of the work of other composers, though Bach is noted in passing. Numerous usually Italian arias from Handel's operas are cited in the text but rarely translated ... Recommended for readers who wish to know more about Handel as an empresario for his own works.
...a biography of such gusto and brilliance that it is as pleasurable as informative ... Glover illuminates every aspect of Handel’s work and describes the plots and musical distinctions of most of the operas and oratorios so fetchingly that the reader itches to hear and see them. She also brings Handel’s times and most constant collaborators, sponsors, and antagonists to vivid life as she keeps the rather-elusive maestro, who wrote almost nothing about himself, firmly in focus.
... [Glover] conjures up an extraordinary past so convincingly that its wonders – and its creatures – seem to stray off the page and into our present. With Handel, of course, leading the cast ... Glover, a renowned conductor and musical historian, sets this 18th century stage efficiently and alluringly. Here every detail — of business and of manners; of royalty and politics – enriches her portrait of a labyrinthine society while each insight illuminates the workings of genius ... Inevitably perhaps in such a tightly focused portrait, there are lacunae. Bach, Telemann and other contemporary composers are mentioned only in passing as are a handful of writers and artists. Handel’s friendships too are left largely unexplored and in this respect Glover is more methodical than nimble. With evocative flourishes, nonetheless, and with single-minded devotion, she follows her subject through four decades of miraculous invention until the light finally dims.
Glover...narrates with rich detail the musical life of George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) in this lively biography ... Glover’s stirring and vibrant biography captures Handel’s remarkable output and his breathtaking innovation.
[Glover] brings all her knowledge and experience to bear in this thorough and revealing work ... Although the author writes for a general readership, she does explore many of his major works—operas, oratorios, occasional music—in considerable detail, explorations that will resonate most clearly with musically sophisticated readers ... Lush and illuminating—a lovely structure built on a solid foundation of research, expertise, and affection.
