The London house of the composer George Frideric Handel is to be absolutely restored, and can host a collection of exhibitions. The latter will shed new gentle on each the nice composer and his next-door neighbour of two centuries later, rock legend Jimi Hendrix.
The museum Handel & Hendrix in London cares for and presents to the general public the houses of two of the best musicians ever to have lived in London.
Handel lived at 25 Brook Avenue from 1723 till his loss of life in 1759. Throughout these 36 years, Handel wrote and rehearsed his best works, together with Messiah and its ever-popular ‘Hallelujah refrain’. His coronation anthem ‘Zadok the Priest’ was additionally written in Brook Avenue: it has since accompanied the coronation of each British monarch since George II, for whom it was written in 1727.
A bit of over two centuries later, in 1968, Jimi Hendrix moved into an adjoining flat at quantity 23. Though he solely lived there for just below a 12 months, the Brook Avenue flat was an essential London base for Hendrix, who was on the peak of his powers on the time. He advised his girlfriend Katy Etchingham, who discovered the flat, that 23 Brook Avenue was ‘my first actual house of my very own’.
Handel & Hendrix in London has set forth on a £3 million mission to open all of Handel’s home to the general public for the primary time. It’ll restore the basement and floor flooring – till not too long ago a luxurious items store – and refurbish the higher flooring, which had been first opened to the general public in 2001.
Dubbed the Hallelujah Mission, the development work will faithfully recreate Handel’s basement kitchen, with all the unique fixtures and fittings in place. These had been fastidiously detailed on a listing made shortly after the composer’s loss of life. The mission may also restore the bottom flooring parlours the place Handel would obtain his friends and aristocratic patrons – and the place his assistant, J.C. Smith, would promote tickets and subscriptions to new works. The entrance façade of 25 Brook Avenue may also be restored, in order that guests can lastly enter Handel’s house via his entrance door.
Inside, different modifications will embrace:
- Historic rooms offered as they could have been within the 1740s, when the composer was in a brand new burst of inventive vitality and business success writing dramatic oratorios
- New exhibitions about Handel’s music and the musicians he labored with and a blended actuality audiovisual show in regards to the writing of Messiah within the very room by which it was composed
- Dwell music carried out within the rooms by which it was written and, usually, first heard
One other exhibition will have a look at London’s vibrant cultural scene within the 18th century and Nineteen Sixties, exploring why the capital was a magnet for each Handel and Hendrix and the way they formed and adjusted the town they made their house.
At the moment closed to the general public, Handel & Hendrix in London will re-open on 18 Might 2023, 300 years after Handel first moved in. Tickets will go on sale in March.
All footage credit score Handel & Hendrix in London
