How do you feel when you hear the holy chorus Hallelujah of oratorio Messiah?

For more than 250 years, this great and most popular of oratorios, composed by George Frideric Handel(1685-1759), has survived and endured numerous revisions and reorchestrations in performances ranging from a “cast of thousands” to today’s emphasis on “authentic” performance practice employing period instruments and small all-male choral ensembles.

2009 will be a great Handel celebration year. To mark the 250th anniversary of his death on April 14, the first special commemorative concert was held in the Concert Hall of Shanghai Oriental Art Center on April 11. The concert presented another masterpiece of Handel – orchestral suite Water Music, and this time was the debut of its full version in Shanghai.

Handel was born in Germany in the same year as J.S. Bach, 1685. Although the two famous composers never met, they both suffered from failing eyesight in old age and both went blind after botched eye operations by a shady English eye doctor named John Taylor.

Unlike Bach, who came from a long line of professional musicians, Handel was the son of a barber-surgeon who was determined that his musical son should become a lawyer. He forbade Handel from playing any instruments but the boy smuggled a quiet keyboard into the attic and secretly learned to play. On a visit to the duke who employed his father, Handel gave a dazzling performance on the organ and was then allowed to take lessons in violin, harpsichord and composition, as long as he also promised to study law.

At the age of 18 Handel went to the north of Germany, to play the violin and the harpsichord in the orchestra of the Hamburg opera theatre. This experience inspired a life-long love of opera which three years later took him to Italy. In Florence, Venice, and Rome he became a great success for his church compositions and instrumental music as well as for his operas. For Rodrigo, his first Italian opera, the grand duke of Florence paid him 100 “sequins” (gold coins after which the sewing decorations are named) and a set of silver knives and forks.

In 1710, Handel returned to the north of Germany to become the official composer to Georg Ludwig of Hanover who later became King George I of England. During his time as Georg Ludwig’s employee Handel made many trips to London where he became idolized for his Italian operas and keyboard performances; like most baroque composers, Handel was also famous as a performer. He found London a much more congenial setting for his talents than the city where he was supposed to be working and he was entertained and housed in the mansions of the rich and famous.

When his German employer came to England to become the king in 1714 after the death of Queen Anne, Handel was able to stay in London and he lived there for the rest of his life. Handel died in 1759 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, recognized in England and by many in Germany as the greatest composer of his day.

Handel House, 25 Brook Street, London W1 In this house, George Frideric Handel lived from 1723 until his death. It is here that he composed his oratorio Messiah. After a major renovation, the house is home to a museum devoted to Handel's life and work.