FUAM Annual lecture 2014 (3rd March)

Monday 3rd March

6.00pm for 6.30pm

Clothworkers' Centenary Concert Hall Foyer

Emeritus Professor Peter Holman, formerly Professor of Historical Musicology at the University of Leeds and Director of the Parley of Instruments and the Leeds Baroque Orchestra.
"Behold, I tell you a mystery": Handel's Messiah in Performance from 1742 to the Present
When Handel directed Messiah he mostly did so on the stages of theatres rather than in churches or concert halls, seated at a harpsichord and using an all-male professional choir of about 20 (with the soloists singing along in the choruses) and an orchestra of about 40. In this talk Professor Holman will explore the long, convoluted and (at times) mysterious history of Handel's greatest work in performance, taking in the 'long movement' (a contraption connecting Handel's harpsichord to a remote organ), travelling Lancashire mill girls, reorchestrations by Mozart and lesser fry, gargantuan Crystal Palace performances, and more than a century of attempts to get back to what Handel originally intended.

Illustrated talk at the School of Music, University of Leeds

Cost (to include pre-talk drinks and nibbles): £6.00 for members and Friends of Leeds Baroque and £8.00 for non-members. Tickets are available from the Events Administrator, Gillian Roche, at [email protected]