Handel 2009

Messiah Memory Bank 2005

Faith and Feeling

‘It’s just so part of my inner being now as a piece of music and a message, a message of what it’s all about, and the message of our Christian Redemption. When one thinks about the words…it’s just so wonderful. Handel’s music is inspiration from the E minor sombre overture to the final triumph of the Amen Chorus’
John Varney, Organist, Choirmaster and Handel House Volunteer

‘I like I know that my Redeemer liveth as a soprano aria. It is an essential truth. It is a great song of hope and it’s beautifully set.’
Mary Loxley, Grants Officer

‘That’s the beauty of the Soulful Celebration. You can have the same psalm from the bible and interpret it and deliver it in completely different ways. We are all different and we all perceive things differently. We can work with the same text and come out with completely different things’
Aleena Herel, Music Student

‘My grandmother died in 1948, and one of the last things she did was to send me her vocal score of Messiah, as she rightly believed that I was the only one in the family who would appreciate it.  It is over 100 years old by now, very well-worn, and remains my most treasured possession.’
Hazel Allport , Handel House Volunteer

‘At the end of Messiah, I turned to my father and I said, "If music sounds as glorious as this on earth – what on earth do the choirs sound like in heaven?"
May Clarke (100 years old), On attending a performance of Messiah in Portsmouth, 1916

Handel House Museum at 25 Brook Street will be at the heart of the Handel celebrations this year. This landmark address is where Handel lived for thirty-six years of his life and where he died on 14 April 1759.