Handel Commemoration

[3] The commemoration established a fashion for large-scale performances of Handel's choral works throughout the nineteenth century and much of the twentieth.

[4] Five further Handel commemorations followed over the next seven years - in 1785, 1786, 1787, 1790 and 1791, the last with over 1,000 participants and an estimated audience of 2,200 people, including Joseph Haydn.

[1] Then in 1834 there was another larger scale commemoration, the Royal Musical Festival also at Westminster Abbey, this time with 625 participating musicians (223 instrumentalists, 397 choral singers and five soloists), and an audience of 2,700.

[1] The 100th anniversary of Handel's death was commemorated at the Crystal Palace in 1859 on a similarly large scale.

The festival included complete performances of The Messiah, the Dettingen Te Deum, and Israel in Egypt, along with excerpts from Belshazzar's Feast and Judas Maccabaeus.