Handel in Italy

G.F. Handel

Armida abbandonata HWV

105 Sonata per Violino e b.c.
HWV 359a

Oh numi eterni! (La Lucrezia)
HWV 145

Trio sonata per 2 Violini e b.c.

HWV 391

Tu fedel, tu costante HWV 171

A musical portrait of a very young Handel, who in the autumn of 1706 set out on the first of his countless journeys, travelling from Hamburg to Italy. The country was considered an essential destination by those who, like the caro sassone (“Dear Saxon”, as he was known), sought a personal experience of those genres – opera and the cantata, first and foremost, but also instrumental and sacred music – that had led seventeenth-century music to “speak Italian”.

Between the autumn of 1706 and 1710, Handel stayed in the cities best known for music on the peninsula (Florence, Naples, and Venice, but especially Rome), making contact with works by the greatest composers of the time (above all, Scarlatti and Corelli).