Handel’s music is unusual, perhaps unique outside the routines of liturgical church music, in that it has remained continuously in performance during the quarter-millennium since his death. However, different repertories of his music have represented the composer in successive periods, affected by changing performing conditions for music, and this factor in turn has affected the image of the composer. Already by the time of his death in 1759, Handel was not remembered as a composer of Italian opera, even though that had been the basis for his initial career in London; his oratorios, on the other hand, remained current and (with a restricted repertory) became even more dominant in the nineteenth century with the growth in amateur choral music-making. The twentieth century saw a restoration of ‘opera Handel’; his music (operas, oratorios and orchestral) also formed a core repertory for the ‘authentic performance’ movement and for the opportunities provided by the development of CD recordings.
