Excellences,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Georg Friedrich Händel, or George Frederic Handel, as he called himself after his naturalisation as an Englishman, belongs to the greatest of composers. His contemporary Johann Sebastian Bach – they were born in the same year, 1685 – apparently once said that, had there never been a Bach, Handel was the only other person he would have wanted to be. Beethoven called Handel the "unerreichte Meister aller Meister" (“incomparable Maestro of all Maestros”) and Haydn is said to have been moved to tears by the Hallelujah chorus.

Like Beethoven, Mozart visited The Hague at a young age, and made arrangements of Handel’s work such as oratorios The Messiah, Alexander's Feast, and Acis and Galatea. In this way he kept the composer’s artistic legacy alive at a time in which the music of deceased composers was rarely played. For example, Bach’s St Matthew Passion was neglected for a much longer period, until it was revived by the young Felix Mendelssohn.

Handel’s music has never entirely been absent in the last 250 years. True, his numerous operas have had to wait somewhat longer before being revived, but since the beginning of the twentieth century and certainly since the rise of the movement for authentic performance practice they have been regularly staged.

Strangely enough, Handel was never quite as popular in The Netherlands as his contemporary Bach. This I can imagine when it comes to the operas. The Netherlands has, when compared to other European countries, never had a particularly strong operatic tradition. After his visit to The Hague in 1722, Voltaire concluded that "Nous avons ici un opéra détestable". Oh well, at least The Hague had an opera…

Handel’s great oratorios, with the exception of The Messiah, also never enjoyed as much popularity in The Netherlands as the St. Matthew Passion has in the last century. This is a shame, since the oratorios, just like Handel’s operas, contain not only beautiful arias but also remarkably impressive choruses. In opposition to what you might expect from an oratorio, these are also often incredibly dramatic in nature.

I warmly welcome this initiative for Handel Year in The Hague. This is not only because I am a great fan of Handel’s music – my favourite opera is Amadigi di Gaula, a work which sizzles with passion and excitement, full of wonderful music. There is every reason to mark the 250th year of Handel’s death extensively, and particularly in The Hague.

Just like his famous creative brothers Mozart and Beethoven, Handel also visited our town a number of times, often passing through while on his travels. He was in The Netherlands for the last time in 1750. On that occasion he not only played the organ in the Groote Kerk (Great Church) in Haarlem, but also on the organ of the church in which we now find ourselves. There is a report on this in the 's- Gravenhaegse Courant newspaper of the 4th December 1750. Attending that organ concert in the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) where according to the paper, “many foreign ambassadors and other prominent people of both genders” as well as “the entire court” ("meeste buytenlandse Gezanten en andere voornaeme Personen van de beyde Sexen" and "het geheele Hof").

The presence of the latter is not so surprising, seeing that Handel had in all likelyhood maintained contact for his whole life with his former pupil, Princess Anna van Hannover, the wife of Willem IV. At the time of Handel’s visit, Willem had been stadholder for just three years, and the couple had just moved from Friesland to The Hague.

The musical Princess Anna  - who was born 300 years ago and died 250 years ago in this anniversary year – played an energetic role on behalf of musical life in The Hague. In previous years this had suffered a somewhat poverty-stricken existence, as Voltaire had discovered. It would have been inevitable that Anna and her retinue would have come to the Nieuwe Kerk to hear her old music teacher. It is also possible that she brought him to Paleis het Loo, where a new organ had been installed. 

Handel’s visits to our city and his connection with Anna van Hannover are not the only reasons to designate 2009 as The Hague’s Handel Year. The driving force behind the Handel 2009 Foundation is the department of Early Music of the Royal Conservatoire, which is lead by Johannes Boer.

Started as an initiative of Frans Brüggen, the department of Early Music and Historical Performance Practice has in the last forty years earned undisputed world-wide fame. If it was originally the names of the teachers which attracted students (not only Frans Brüggen, but of course musicians such as Sigiswald, Wieland en Barthold Kuijken and Jaap ter Linden just to name a few), today merely the name of the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague stands as synonymous for education in Early Music at the highest level. The Hague is the Mecca of Musica Antiqua. This is something of which we can be very proud!

The 'Dutch School' in early music is known for expressive and individual playing, with a frequently adventurous passion for experimentation with regard to applying established historical knowledge into new performances. Much repertoire has literally been dragged out of obscurity, dusted off and re-created by students and former students of The Hague as if the music had been written yesterday. Not as museum pieces, but full of life.

The Hague really is an international city in this regard: the 200 or so students who are active in the Early Music department come from 35 different countries. On completing their studies they are released back into the international music world, taking the knowledge and expertise they have gained with them.

It is these musicians which you will hear, not only today but also later in this Handel Year. For example on the 24th of April, when 75 of them will perform the Anthem This is the day which the Lord hath made. Handel wrote this piece for the wedding of Anna and Willem. Something else to look forward to is the production of Handel’s early opera Agrippina, also by students of the Royal Conservatoire and the New Opera Academy.

The complete programme of The Hague’s Handel Year, with contributions from top musicians from at home and abroad, is too long to be announced here. Not only Handel’s music will be performed but also that of other composers, up to and including those of today. I will most certainly be doing my best to attend as many of these events as possible. I also sincerely hope that many people, from The Hague and beyond will celebrate this Handel year with us. His musical genius can still inspire and move multitudes, even two and a half centuries on.

I am convinced that many a visitor to the coming Handel concerts will have exactly the same experience as described in the closing lines of Handel’s Ode for Saint Cecilia's Day:

But bright Cecilia raised the wonder higher:
When to her organ vocal breath was given
An angel heard, and straight appeared -
Mistaking earth for heaven.

And with the ‘vocal breath’ which I now pass on to the organ, I declare The Hague’s Handel Year 2009 officially open!

(Here follows the Halleluiah from Handel’s Messiah on the great organ).