The London Handel Festival is an annual celebration of the work of George Frideric Handel. Each year we present a critically acclaimed season of concerts, recitals, talks and walks, and everyone is welcome. Since the very beginning the Festival has been supported by those passionate about Handel’s music. A major aim of the Festival is to encourage and promote young talent.

Update, Thursday 23 April 2020

Mr Handel suffered many adversities during his career, including financial ruin on different occasions and increasing ill-health as he grew older, but each time he showed admirable perserverance and simply carried on writing and performing his wonderful music.  We are taking a leaf out of his book.  We were so sorry that we could not present the 2020 London Handel Festival in its full glory, owing to the current Covid-19 pandemic.  We aim to bring you more Handel when the current crisis is over.  We will certainly let you know when we are in a position to reinstate some of our cancelled events and concerts.

For now, we are pleased to bring you a selection of digital performances of Handel during lockdown, and we will keep adding to this list.  If you have a suggestion for something you have seen or performed in to be added, please e-mail us.  We will also promote digital content through our social media platforms, so please do follow us on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.  We also have a freely available resource of programme notes from past performances in the London Handel Festival, and we will be adding to this in the coming weeks – click here to find out more.

Handel’s Heroines – recorded live in Cambridge in March 2020; director – Laurence Cummings, sopranos – Mary Bevan, Jennifer France; Academy of Ancient Music.  This is the same concert which was due to happen at Milton Court in London but was cancelled

Handel at Home for Easter – arias from La Resurrezione first performed on Easter Sunday (8 April 1708) in Rome, arranged for flute and strings; London Handel Players

ROH Hallelujah! – the famous chorus from Messiah, sung by Royal Opera House orchestra and chorus, socially distanced of course!

Royal Choral Society – another version of the Hallelujah chorus, this time sung by the massed forces of the Royal Choral Society, again socially distanced

Helen Charlston – winner of First Prize in our 2018 Handel Singing Competition, here singing ‘Al lampo dell’armi’ from Giulio Cesare at the live Final

Lauren Lodge-Campbell – winner of the Audience Prize in our 2018 Handel Singing Competition, here singing ‘Scoglio d’immota fronte’ from Scipione at the live Final