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GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL

the last occasion more than a thousand executants^[1] took part. Haydn was present, and he said, through his tears, "He is master of us all."

The English performances attracted the attention of Germany. Two years after the Commemoration, Johann Adam Killer produced The Messiah in the Cathedral Church at Berlin, then at Leipzig, and then at Breslau. Three years later, in 1789, Mozart made his arrangements of The Messiah, of Acis and Galatea, of the Ode to St. Cecilia, and of Alexander's Feast^[2] The first complete edition of Handel was commenced in 1786. A strong feeling of emulation made itself felt in Germany to imitate the English festivals, and to restore choral singing, and to found the Singakademien for the preservation of the national glories.^[3] The rendering of Handel's oratorios inspired Haydn to write The Creation. Beethoven at the end of his life said of Handel: "See there is the truth."^[4] Poets also vied equally

↑ The number of performers never ceased to increase after the festivals of 1784, when there were 530 or 540, right up to the famous festivals in the Sydenham Crystal Palace, when the number reached 1035 in 1854, 2500 in 1857, and 4000 in 1859. Remember that during the lifetime of Handel the Messiah was performed by thirty-three players and twenty-three singers. They manufactured for these gigantic performances some monster instruments; a double bassoon (already invented in 1727), a special contrabass, some bass trumpets, drums tuned an octave lower, etc.
↑ These arrangements, executed for the Baron van Swieten, are far from being irreproachable, and show that Mozart, despite the assertions of Rochlitz, had not a deep understanding of Handel's works. However, he wrote an "Overture in the style of Handel," and suddenly remembered him when he composed his Requiem.
↑ The first was the Singakademie of Berlin, founded in 1790 by Fasch.
↑ In the Harmonicon of January, 1824, one finds Beethoven's opinion (quoted by Percy Robinson): "Handel is the greatest composer who has ever lived. I should like to kneel at his tomb." And in a letter from Beethoven to an English lady (published in the Harmonicon of December, 1825): "I adore Handel". We know that after the 9th Symphony he had the plan of writing some grand oratorios in the style of Handel.

[1] The number of performers never ceased to increase after the festivals of 1784, when there were 530 or 540, right up to the famous festivals in the Sydenham Crystal Palace, when the number reached 1035 in 1854, 2500 in 1857, and 4000 in 1859. Remember that during the lifetime of Handel the Messiah was performed by thirty-three players and twenty-three singers. They manufactured for these gigantic performances some monster instruments; a double bassoon (already invented in 1727), a special contrabass, some bass trumpets, drums tuned an octave lower, etc.

[2] These arrangements, executed for the Baron van Swieten, are far from being irreproachable, and show that Mozart, despite the assertions of Rochlitz, had not a deep understanding of Handel's works. However, he wrote an "Overture in the style of Handel," and suddenly remembered him when he composed his Requiem.

[3] The first was the Singakademie of Berlin, founded in 1790 by Fasch.

[4] In the Harmonicon of January, 1824, one finds Beethoven's opinion (quoted by Percy Robinson): "Handel is the greatest composer who has ever lived. I should like to kneel at his tomb." And in a letter from Beethoven to an English lady (published in the Harmonicon of December, 1825): "I adore Handel". We know that after the 9th Symphony he had the plan of writing some grand oratorios in the style of Handel.

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