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From the Publisher
"Can also serve as a reference tool for Handel and his works...Libraries with the earlier edition of this book would do well to replace it with this current edition." --Choice
"Burrows makes a valuable contribution towards restoring the balance...Burrows skillfully interweaves Handel's 'outward' biography with the 'inner' one of his creative life, linking the two aspects chronologically in irregularly alternating chapters. In this way the reader can conveniently use the book either as biography or as a commentary on the music...this is a considerable achievement. Burrows's study of Handel...provides us with a deeply informative and well-balanced composition."--BBC Music
"A welcome addition to what has already proved itself to be an excellent, authoritative series of musical biographies"--Classical Music
"This book, of Handelian solidity, is worth of its subject,...The Clarendon Press, as usual, have responded to a worthy book worthily; production, print, and musical calligraphy are exemplary, and the scholarly apparatus and appendices aare exhaustive but not exhausting."--The Oldie
"A properly balanced book, with due weight given to previously-neglected areas. It is particularly good to see Handel's English church music being given more attention. There is an immense amount of scholarship here, presented throughout the book in an accessible way ... an elegantly-produced hardback, it is outstandingly good value."--Peter Holman, The Musical Times
UNEDITED UK REVIEW: "Although precious few certain facts are known about Handel's pre-London career, this latest biography details them all in over 40 pages of well-reasoned narrative."--Classical Music
"...the best single-volume book on Handel...£25.00 is very good value for a work of this size, let alone excellence: it augers well for the new management."--Early Music review
"Not just a 'better' book, it is the best single-volume book on Handel ... The author has all the facts at his finger-tips, quotes extensively from the sources ... and makes sensible remarks on the music. There is a vast knowledge lying behind the book."--Clifford Bartlett, Early Music Review
"Mr. Burrows writes like a specialist ...exudes authority not only in what he puts forward but also in his prudent refusal to claim too much...[this book] will undoubtedly prove invaluable to serious students and useful as well to general readers."--The New York Times
Overview
Handel is one of the most remarkable figures in the history of western music. His compositions form one of the peaks of creative achievement in the Baroque period, and cover a remarkable range: full-scale Italian operas and English oratorios (including Messiah), but also shorter works such as the Water Music and the Coronation Anthem Zadok the Priest. His compositional processes were often complex, but could result in accessible and memorable 'hit tunes', such as the aria that ...