It has been reported that Handel hardly ate anything during the 24 days it took him to write the music for Messiah. How the food which the waiter brought the busy composer remained untouched. How tears smeared the notes. How his trembling fingers made the ink run, and how in the end he exclaimed, ‘I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself’. It would be amazing if this was true – but it isn’t …
Music: Dunedin Consort ‘Handel’s Original Dublin Version 1742’