Handel 2009

Messiah Memory Bank 2005

A Sense of Place

‘I feel very, very humble in the room where it was actually written.’
David Ferminger

‘I’m so overwhelmed with the mastery behind it, that it was written in three weeks and that in the 18th century it was performed in Calcutta’
Bridget Cunningham, Harpsichord player and organist

‘It was a national project run by the Hospice movement where simultaneously there were many different performances of Messiah all around the country. There was a countdown on Radio 2 so that everybody could start at the same time. I did mine at the local church, I think it was in Harrow, and it was fantastic to think that we were all singing it at exactly the same time. It was very exciting.’
Diane Branson, Charity Administrator

‘The first time I can remember going to a performance was at the Odeon cinema in Swiss Cottage. It was turned into a concert Hall for that occasion. It was lovely!’
Contributor’s name withheld

‘I come from a very small village in Yorkshire. I went to a little Methodist church there and each year we had a Sunday School anniversary and we used to end the Sunday School anniversary with the choir singing the Hallelujah Chorus.’
Geraldine Ellis, Member of Wimbledon Choral Society

‘Listening on the radio is just listening, but being amongst all the people, hundreds of people, like at the Albert Hall, it’s just so wonderful it brings tears to your eyes, it does really. You can’t help it when they all stand up for the Hallelujah Chorus. Its really lovely.’
Dorothy Hirst, Member of Northwood Live at Home Scheme

Handel House Museum at 25 Brook Street will be at the heart of the Handel celebrations this year. This landmark address is where Handel lived for thirty-six years of his life and where he died on 14 April 1759.