Welcome to our 2024 London Handel Festival Spring Awakenings.
14th March – 20th April
This year’s Festival is full of artistic delights, thrilling Handel-inspired performances and events, all of which have been designed to awaken the senses and enrich the soul. Our 2024 Festival features some of the finest Handelian performers in the world in a dazzling programme that represents the incredible depth and variety of Handel’s compositional canon.
Our core mission at the London Handel Festival is to enrich people’s lives through the performance of Handel’s music and to embody his spirit throughout all our work. Handel’s impact on the cultural life of London, the UK and the world can still be experienced today and all of us at the LHF remain committed to celebrating the life, the music, and continued legacy of this great cultural icon.
Nobody has been more important or had a greater impact on the London Handel Festival’s success than our Musical Director Laurence Cummings. In the 1990s, a remarkably gifted keyboard student from the Royal College of Music was asked by the Festival’s founder Denys Darlow to play for a performance of the 1712 version of Il Pastor Fido with the London Handel Orchestra. Rumour has it Laurence was also asked to provide the harpsichord as well. This was the start of Laurence Cummings’ long and immensely fruitful relationship with the Festival.
Our 2024 Festival is both Laurence’s 25th and final Festival as Musical Director. Throughout the Festival we will celebrate and honour Laurence’s remarkable achievements as Musical Director. Handel’s music has never been more popular, and rightly so. Laurence’s peerless dedication to the performance of Handel has been a major part in the revolution of which we are so proud to be a part.
In addition to this important celebration, we are thrilled to be welcoming some of the world’s leading ensembles and acclaimed Handelian performers. Guest ensembles this year include Solomon’s Knot, The English Concert and La Nuova Musica. As well as this the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the National Youth Choir collaborate in a very special Coronation project featuring four new Handel-inspired commissions.
One of the notable highlights of Laurence’s tenure has been the dazzling array of staged works. This year we continue our commitment to presenting unique and innovative interpretations of Handel’s dramatic works. In 2024 critically acclaimed director Jack Furness will make his London Handel Festival debut, directing a brand new staging of Handel’s early Neapolitan work Aci, Galatea e Polifemo as part of an event entitled Aci by the River. This promises to be one of the highlights of the Festival. Tickets will sell out quickly, so be sure to book well in advance.
Beyond the concerts there are a number of ways to Get Involved! and experience the wonders of Handel’s music outside the performances. Across the Festival you can join us in an array of talks, walks, behind the scenes events and workshops. Our international audiences will join us through another online series and we are proud that our Learning and Participation programme continues to evolve throughout the year.
Handel’s very own church, St George’s, Hanover Square in the heart of Mayfair is, as ever, the centre of our Festival programme. Throughout 2024 we are thrilled to be entering into a new partnership with Handel Hendrix House providing our audiences with enhanced opportunities to explore the iconic London home.
Spring Awakenings promises to be a very special moment in the history of the London Handel Festival. Come and join us, be part of our Festival and be enriched by the power of Handel’s music and his continued legacy.
Gregory Batsleer I Festival Director
Full Programme
Opening Concert: Esther HWV 50
March 14th | 7pm | St George’s, Hanover Square
Handel and the Human Voice: A Singing Workshop
March 16th | 11am | Grosvenor Chapel
25th Anniversary Celebrity Recital: Carolyn Sampson & Laurence Cummings
March 17th | 4pm | St George’s Hanover Square
International Handel Singing Competition Semi-Final
March 19th| 6pm | St George’s, Hanover Square
Music for Royal Spaces
March 20th | 7pm | The King’s Chapel of the Savoy
Ensemble Molière present Hidden Gems at the Foundling Museum
March 24th | 3.30pm – Talk | 5.30pm – Performance | The Foundling Museum
English Concert perform Brockes Passion HWV 48
March 27th | 7pm | St George’s, Hanover Square
St John Passion BWV 245
March 29th (Good Friday) | 4pm | St George’s, Hanover Square
Tasting Notes
April 3rd | 6.30pm | Hedonism Wines Mayfair (Postponed until May/June 2024)
Solomon’s Knot Present The Class of 1685
April 4th | 7pm | St George’s, Hanover Square
A Coronation made new!
April 6th | 7pm | St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church
Handel Opera Studio Presents: Aci, by the River
April 10th, 11th, 12th | 7.30pm | April 13th | 2.30pm | Trinity Buoy Wharf Lighthouse
Handel Hendrix House Sessions
April 16th | 7pm | Handel Hendrix House
International Handel Singing Competition Final
April 19th | 7pm | St George’s, Hanover Square
Closing Concert: Arianna in Creta HWV 32
April 20th | 3.30pm | St George’s, Hanover Square
Lunchtime at the Charterhouse
Ensemble Augeletti March 19th | 1pm | The Charterhouse
2023 International HSC Finalist’s Recital April 2nd | 1pm | The Charterhouse
Handel Meets Carbonelli April 9th | 1pm | The Charterhouse
Stars of the Future at Handel Hendrix House
March 25th | 1pm | The Royal College of Music
April 15th | 1pm | The Royal Academy of Music
Get involved! Handel with Care
Handel and his Royal Connections March 23 | 10am | Chapel Royal St James’
Tasting Notes! April 3rd | 6.30pm | Hedonism Wine
Behind the scenes of Aci, by the River | April 6th | 10.30am | The Foundling Museum
Get Involved! Walks
Handel & Mayfair April 20th | 2pm
Get Involved! Online previews
Opening Concert: Esther March 12th | 6.30pm
Brockes Passion March 25th | 6.30pm
Coronation Celebration April 4th | 6.30pm
Arianna in Creta April 18th | 6.30pm
Priority Booking Dates
Director’s Circle Monday 13th November
Gold Members Wednesday 15th November
Patrons’ Circle Friday 17th November
Festival Benefactors Monday 20th November
Associate Benefactors Wednesday 22nd November
Friends Friday 24th November
General Booking Monday 27th November
All priority booking opens from 10am on the respective date