By now Handel was studying English, and had struck up a friendship with the English poet John Hughes (1677-1720), whose short text on the subject of Venus and Adonis Handel turned into a secular cantata. This was Handel’s first attempt at setting English words to music. In the autumn of 1713, he gained the Elector’s permission to make a second visit to London, this time residing as a house guest of Lord Burlington in Burlington House on Piccadilly – the impressive building which today is home to the Royal Academy of Arts. Here he settled into a comfortable routine of composing during the day and playing at concerts by night. Burlington was wealthy and a prominent patron of the arts, and he made Handel very welcome. Four more operas date from this period (Il pastor fido, Teseo, Amadigi di Gaula and Radamisto). Later that year, Handel was given a pension of £200 p.a. by Queen Anne, in return for which he was obliged to divide his attention between composing Italian opera and providing English church and ceremonial music for the British royal establishment. On the back of this pension he moved from Burlington House to a stylish new townhouse in Mayfair. (Today the building is marked by an English Heritage blue plaque.) It appears that the Elector was happy enough for Handel to remain both in his employment, but also in London, as there is no evidence of his having recalled Handel to Hanover.
On August 1st 1714 Queen Anne died without having produced any children who survived past childhood. Parliament had ruled out a Catholic successor, both then and for ever, and so the Elector of Hanover (great-grandson of James VI and I) duly moved to London, ascended to the throne as King George I, and immediately made Handel a full time member of the royal staff, raising his annual salary to £600, half of which was paid by the court in Hanover. Despite his tangible genius, his proximity to the monarchy, and his growing popularity, Handel was never appointed to the prestigious and coveted post of Master of the King’s Music – the musical equivalent to the position of Poet Laureate. During all of his time in London this position was held firstly by John Eccles (1668-1735) – the longest ever incumbent of the post with thirty-five years’ service, and, on his death, by Maurice Greene (1696-1755), the organist of St Paul’s Cathedral. Handel’s eminence, talent and popularity as a composer trumped both of these gentleman, but seemingly did not outweigh his German nationality; the Hanoverian kings always playing safe by selecting lesser composers, but ones with unimpeachable native breeding.
The final of a series of treaties, known collectively as the Treaty of Utrecht was signed in 1714, leading Handel to compose the Utrecht Te Deum, the first performance of which he gave in St Paul’s Cathedral playing the newly installed Father Smith organ (about which he was rather disparaging). Rehearsals for this were so popular that they were held before a paying public. During this time he was also responsible for the musical education of the daughters of Queen Caroline. As far as we know, these were Handel’s only pupils during his entire lifetime – something which sets him apart from nearly all of his contemporaries and immediate successors. The newly-ascended King George was knowledgeable about music and had refined taste and, as King of Great Britain, he could afford to indulge it. In 1717 the king and assembled guests set off down the Thames on a lavish barge. Adjacent to the royal barge was a second barge with fifty musicians under Handel’s direction. This was the first performance of two dance suites which we now know as the Water Music. The king was so enthralled by the music that, when the performance was over, he immediately commanded two further performances before allowing the vessels to return to the shore.
The Jacobite unrest in 1716 delayed the start of the London opera season when Handel’s new opera, Amadigi di Gaula, written a little earlier, was premiered at the (now called) King’s Theatre. (The theatre, previously known as the Queen’s Theatre, has traditionally changed its name over the centuries to match the gender of the reigning monarch.) Further concertos, ceremonial music, and instrumental music followed, as did the Brockes Passion – Handel’s only complete surviving work entirely in his native language of German, and his only attempt at setting the Passion story. (The text is not biblical as in the Passions of Bach, but written in literary verse.) It was written for a trip to Germany to visit his ailing mother in 1719. Whilst in Germany he met an old friend from his university days in Halle, Johann Christoph Schmidt. He persuaded Schmidt to enter his service as a copyist, amanuensis and secretary. Schmidt returned to London with Handel, anglicised his name to John Christopher Smith and remained in service for the rest of Handel’s life. J.S. Bach was Kapellmeister at Cöthen at this time – a mere twenty miles from Halle. On learning of Handel’s proximity, Bach is reported to have dropped everything and immediately set off by the first available stagecoach to meet him, arriving in Halle a matter of two hours after Handel had left to return to London. This was the closest that these two eminent German Baroque giants ever came to meeting.
