London Handel Festival – what a five weeks!

Very much to my regret, the totally delightful London Handel Festival’s Spring Awakenings came to a roof-raising end on Saturday afternoon with a packed out performance of Arianna in Creta in St George’s Hanover Square – having started with an equally packed out roof-raising performance of Esther on March 14th. Handel enthusiasts were bowled over by the stunning quality of the singing and the playing in both performances – while Handel newbies like me were amazed by the power, the beauty and the sheer exuberance of the music – gripping and irresistible – even after three hours in the St George’s pews.

But splendid though these performances were, there was much more. A special recital celebrating Laurence Cummings‘ 25 years as Music Director of the festival (he steps down this year) with Carolyn Sampson, Bach’s St John Passion with the London Handel Orchestra on Good Friday in St George’s, the rarely performed Brocke’s Passion with The English Consort, ‘The Coronation Made New’ (four of Handel’s coronation anthems matched with four coronation anthem commissions from contemporary composers) – and, of course, the famous International Handel Singing Competition.

International Handel Singing Competition

First held in 2002 the competition is now a major international event, attracting over 165 applicants from over 20 countries worldwide this year. Past winners such as Iestyn Davies, Lucy Crowe, Grace Davidson, Tim Mead, Christopher Ainslie, Rupert Charlesworth and Ruby Hughes have all gone on to make stellar careers – as will, no doubt, this year’s winner, bass baritone Will Frost.

The final takes place in St George’s in front of a full audience who also get to take part in the judging.  And as a post festival treat you can watch the whole event live on YouTube (below). If you do, don’t miss director Greg Batsleer’s excellent interview with Laurence Cummings while the judges are conferring.

But that is far from all…

Since I could not get to the singing competition final the two highlights of the festival for me were the amazing staging of the early Handel opera Acis and Galatea in docklands at Trinity Buoy Lighthouse – as Aci by the River – and the evening spent in the Handel Hendrix House.

Aci by the River

I discovered the London Handel Festival through In the Realms of sorrow, their 2023 production of early Handel Cantatas. This was the first ‘outing’ for the newly formed LHF Opera Studio whose remit is ‘to radically redefine how Baroque opera is performed and perceived in the 21st century’. So extraordinary did I find that performance that I signed up for more festival events and, in due course, as a volunteer. So I had great expectations of how they would use this year’s off the wall venue – the Trinity Buoy Lighthouse in the heart of docklands.

My expectations were raised further when I heard that, in true 18th century fashion, audience members could be transported down the river to the lighthouse by boat serenaded by Handel’s Water Music played by members of the orchestra. And….. that they would be greeted at the lighthouse by trumpets!

But to the opera…

In the Greek original the semi-divine water nymph Galatea loves, and is loved by the shepherd Aci – but also by the one eyed giant Polifermo. In a jealous rage, Polifermo kills Aci but Galatea uses her divine powers to turn Aci into a river so that they can still be together in the sea. In Aci by the River, the giant has become a very 21st century predatory director in a studio filming the story of the lovers.

The music is stunningly beautiful (and was stunningly beautifully played) – only matched by the glorious voices of the three singers – Mary Bevan as Aci, Claudia Huckle as Galatea and the amazing Callum Thorpe as Polifermo.

The acting space is the warehouse beneath the lighthouse with heavy old wooden doors which open onto the quayside – and which did indeed open at the end of the opera to allow Galatea to walk out and into the river to join her dead lover.

For more on the concept and the thinking behind the performance see this page on LHF site and listen to the short video with the singers and Jack Furniss, the director.

Since I had already seen the opera twice, on the last performance for which I was voluntering and which was a matinée, I took the opportunity to nip up to the lighthouse itself. As it happens, quite unbeknownst to me, the lighthouse is also the home of The Long Player, the thousand year long musical composition of singing bowls which began playing at midnight on the 31st of December 1999, and will continue to play without repetition until the last moment of 2999, at which point it will complete its cycle and begin again.

I climbed up to the bell of the lighthouse to listen to the musical bowls and was baffled as I thought I could also hear strains of Handel – until I realised that we were of course literally on top of the performance space. So here is a short rendition of the singing bowls accompanying Polifermo’s lament.

The Handel Hendrix House

Handel lived in England for over 40 years from when he arrived in 1713. For 36 of those years he lived at 25 Brook Street in Mayfair, a short five minute walk from ‘his’ church, St George’s Hanover Square.

By chance, 200 odd years later the legendary American guitarist Jimi Hendrix rented a flat at number 23 Brook Street when he came to London in September 1966 – and from it his career was launched. On learning that Handel used to live next door Hendrix bought some classical albums – including Handel’s Messiah and Water Music.

Both houses have now come together to open as the Handel Hendrix House – all four floors of number 25 restored to very much the state in which Handel left them when he died, with much of his furniture, his harpsichord and his books in place, and one floor of number 23 restored to the 1966 version of Hendrix’ flat. If you have an interest in either artist the museum is well worth a visit.  And as part of the festival one got not only to visit the houses but to hear short concerts on each floor of the house.

The Handel Hendrix concerts

The audience for the concerts were split into three groups of 20, the maximum number that could be squeezed onto each floor of the house, and rotated round the house so everyone got to hear all three mini recitals.

On the first floor was recorder player Fatima Lahham. Apart from playing us a delicate recorder version of Laschia ch’lo planga, Fatima revealed that the recorder was a hugely popular domestic instrument in the 18th century, and that whole operas were transcribed for the recorder and sold in book form so that enthusiasts could play the whole opera at home for themselves.

On the top floor were Max Baillie on the violin and Rob Luft on the guitar with a truly amazing Handel-Hendrix mix. I think we would all have been happy to hear a good deal more than 20 minutes worth.

And finally, on the ground floor was Oliver Wass and his harp. I recorded all of the piece (by Giovanni Maria Trabaci – the first piece of harp music we actually have) as what Oliver had to say about the harp was so interesting.

The future

And so, that was it….. A hugely exciting and enjoyable five weeks. And it seems as though we might not have to wait until next year for more as there are rumours of a mini festival in the autumn. Watch this space – or subscribe to the festival’s newsletter.