• Name: George Frederick Handel
• Birthday: 02/23/1685
• Birth Place: Halle, Germany
• Died: 04/14/1759
• Place of Death: London, England
• Period: Baroque
• Genre: Classical

Title	Release
Chill with Handel	2003
The Messiah [Definitive]	2001
Handel's Messiah/Mackerras [RCA]	1989
Handel's Messiah Arias/Sargen
Handel's Messiah Arias/Solti
Handel's Messiah Favorite Choir
Handel's Messiah/Harnonco
Handel's Messiah/Klemperer
Handel's Messiah/Mackerras [Polygram]
Handel's Young Messiah
(57) Concerto Grosso in A major, Op.6/11, HWV 329
(120) Concerto Grosso in A minor, Op.6/4, HWV 322
(53) Concerto Grosso in B flat major, Op.3/1, HWV 312
(81) Concerto Grosso in B flat major, Op.3/2, HWV 313
(70) Concerto Grosso in B flat major, Op.6/7, HWV 325
(114) Concerto Grosso in B minor, Op.6/12, HWV 330
(77) Concerto Grosso in C minor, Op.6/8, HWV 326
(63) Concerto Grosso in D major, Op.3/6, HWV 317
(101) Concerto Grosso in D major, Op.6/5, HWV 323
(44) Concerto Grosso in D minor, Op.3/5, HWV 316
(69) Concerto Grosso in D minor, Op.6/10, HWV 328
(61) Concerto Grosso in E minor, Op.6/3, HWV 321
(58) Concerto Grosso in F major, Op.3/4a, HWV 315
(78) Concerto Grosso in F major, Op.6/2, HWV 320
(54) Concerto Grosso in F major, Op.6/9, HWV 327
(63) Concerto Grosso in G major, Op.3/3, HWV 314
(110) Concerto Grosso in G major, Op.6/1, HWV 319
(103) Concerto Grosso in G minor, Op.6/6, HWV 324
(223) Giulio Cesare in Egitto, opera, HWV 17 W	2004
(47) Israel in Egypt, oratorio, HWV 54
(196) Judas Maccabaeus, oratorio, HWV 63	2006
(1223) Messiah, oratorio, HWV 56
(59) Organ Concerto in B flat major, Op.4/6, HWV 294 (originally for harp)
(42) Suite for keyboard (Suite de piece), Vol.1, No.2 in F major, HWV 427	2008
(160) Suite for keyboard (Suite de piece), Vol.1, No.5 in E major ("The Harmonious Blacksmith"), HWV 430	2008
(74) Suite for keyboard (Suite de piece), Vol.1, No.7 in G minor, HWV 432	2008
(68) Suite for keyboard (Suite de piece), Vol.2, No.4 in D minor, HWV 437	1980
(508) Water Music Suite No.1 for orchestra in F major, HWV 348
(354) Water Music Suite No.2 for orchestra in D major, HWV 349
(170) Water Music Suite No.3 for orchestra in G major, HWV 350
(255) Water Music Suites Nos 1-3 for orchestra, HWV 348-350	1989
Air for keyboard in B flat major, HWV 469	2002
Allemande for keyboard in B minor, HWV 479	2002
(5) Cecilia, Volgi un Sguardo, cantata for soprano, tenor, strings & continuo, HWV 89	2003
Concerto for keyboard (2 movements) in G major, HWV 487	2002
(8) Concerto in D major, HWV 335a	1996
(4) Concerto in F major, HWV 331	1996
Courante for keyboard in B minor, HWV 489	2002
(3) Figlio d'alte speranze, cantata for soprano, HWV 113	2005
Jesu meine Freude, chorale for keyboard in G minor, HWV 480	2002
Minuet for keyboard in A major, HWV 545	2002
Minuet for keyboard in A major, HWV 546	2002
Minuet for keyboard in A major, HWV 547	2002
Oreste, opera, HWV A11 (fragment)	2004
Suite for 2 harpsichords in C minor, HWV 446 (fragment)	2002
(3) Violin Sonata in A major ("Roger"), Op. 1/10 (doubtful)	1998
(4) Violin Sonata in E major ("Roger"), Op. 1/12 (doubtful)	1998
(3) Aminta E Fillide (Arresta il Passo), cantata for 2 sopranos, strings & continuo, HWV 83
(17) Sonata a 5 for violin & strings in B flat major (Sonata à Cinque), HWV 288	1971
(5) A mirarvi io son intento, duet for soprano, alto & continuo, HWV 178	1997

Most music lovers have encountered George Frederick Handel through holiday-time renditions of the Messiah's "Hallelujah" chorus. And many of them know and love that oratorio of Christ's life and death, as well as a few other greatest hits like the orchestral Water Music and Royal Fireworks Music, and perhaps Judas Maccabeus or one of the other English oratorios. Yet his operas, for which he was widely known in his own time, are the province mainly of specialists in baroque music, and the events of his life, even though they reflected some of the most important musical issues of the day, have never become as familiar as the careers of Bach or Mozart. Perhaps the single word that best describes his life and music is "cosmopolitan": he was a German composer, trained in Italy, who spent most of his life in England.

Handel was born in the German city of Halle on February 23, 1685. His father noted but did not nurture his musical talent, and he had to sneak a small keyboard instrument into his attic to practice. As a child he studied music with Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, organist at the Liebfrauenkirche, and for a time he seemed destined for a career as a church organist himself. After studying law briefly at the University of Halle, Handel began serving as organist on March 13, 1702, at the Domkirche there. Dissatisfied, he took a post as violinist in the Hamburg opera orchestra in 1703, and his frustration with musically provincial northern Germany was perhaps shown when he fought a duel the following year with the composer Matheson over the accompaniment to one of Matheson's operas. In 1706 Handel took off for Italy, then the font of operatic innovation, and mastered contemporary trends in Italian serious opera. He returned to Germany to become court composer in Hannover, whose rulers were linked by family ties with the British throne; his patron there, the Elector of Hannover, became King George I of England. English audiences took to his 1711 opera Rinaldo, and several years later Handel jumped at the chance to move to England permanently. He impressed King George early on with the Water Music of 1716, written as entertainment for a royal boat outing.

Through the 1720s Handel composed Italian operatic masterpieces for London stages: Ottone, Serse (Xerxes), and other works often based on classical stories. His popularity was dented, though, by new English-language works of a less formal character, and in the 1730s and 1740s Handel turned to the oratorio , a grand form that attracted England's new middle-class audiences. Not only Messiah but also Israel in Egypt, Samson, Saul, and many other works established him as a venerated elder of English music. The oratorios displayed to maximum effect Handel's melodic gift and the sense of timing he brought to big choral numbers. Among the most popular of all the oratorios was Judas Maccabeus, composed in 32 days in 1746. Handel presented the oratorio six times during its first season and about 40 times before his death 12 years later, conducting it 30 times himself. In 1737, Handel suffered a stroke, which caused both temporary paralysis in his right arm and some loss of his mental faculties, but he recovered sufficiently to carry on most normal activity. He was urged to write an autobiography, but never did. Blind in old age, he continued to compose. He died in London on April 14, 1759. Beethoven thought Handel the greatest of all his predecessors; he once said, "I would bare my head and kneel at his grave." ~ All Music Guide, All Music Guide