In The Wake Of Handel: The Impact Of Handel On 300 Years Of British Culture.

November 2010

Peter Medhurst

Peter MedhurstPeter Medhurst appears in the UK and abroad as musician and scholar, giving recitals and delivering illustrated lectures in music and the arts. He studied singing and early keyboard instruments at the Royal College of Music and at the Mozarteum in Saltzburg. He is especially well-known as a presenter and lecturer on music and the arts and is the creator of the highly successful study days sponsored by The Classical Music Company at the South Bank in London. Peter is visiting lecturer to the University of Kent, The National Trust, The National Arts Collection Fund, and Nadfas

Despite his German birth, and his Italian musical training, Handel remains one of the most important composers that England ever nurtured.  Not only did his music have direct influence on his musical contemporaries, but his larger-than-life personality had a profound effect on the literary, visual and decorative arts as well – both in his lifetime and after his death, in 1759.  By exploring the works of the French sculptor Roubiliac, the paintings of Hudson and Denner, the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, the novels of Samuel Butler, the Crystal Palace, the chimes of Westminster, as well as compositions by Sullivan and Tippett, the lecture assessed the cultural influences Handel had on a nation, as he once wrote, from whom I have receiv’d so generous a protection.

The lecture was illustrated with digital images and video, as well as musical examples.

Suggested Reading

Handel by Christopher Hogwood, Thames & Hudson, 2007

Handel : the man & his music by Jonathan Keates, Gollancz Paperbacks, 2008