Handel through Mozart’s eyes: Handel Hendrix House offers us a chance to see Mozart studying Handel’s music

Mozart’s fugue based on Handel (Photo: Handel Hendrix House)

Mozart visited London in 1764-5 as part of a long European tour with his family. At just eight years old, Mozart performed Handel’s music in the presence of royalty, participated in concerts that included Handel’s Acis and Galatea, and experienced live performances of many more works including Alexander’s Feast. 

Mozart went on to study and make new arrangements of Handel’s fugues, dramatic oratorios and odes, finding inspiration in Handel’s mastery of the rules of counterpoint and the expressive power of his music. Mozart was reported to say that ‘Handel understands effect better than any of us…when he chooses, he strikes like a thunderbolt.’  

Over 20 years after that London visit Mozart would produce modern versions of Handel’s works for performances in Vienna including Acis and Galethea (1788), the Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day (1790), Alexander’s Feast (1790) and Messiah (1789). 

Age 26 in 1782, Mozart would transcribe string quartet the fugue from Handel’s Suite in F for harpsichord (written 60 years earlier). The manuscript for this, beautifully written in Mozart’s hand,  is evidence of Mozart’s life-long fascination with Handel’s music and the Baroque master’s influence on Mozart’s own music. 

This manuscript forms the centrepiece of the exhibition, Handel through Mozart’s eyes at Handel Hendrix House from 25 February top 13 September 2026. The exhibition also includes an early printed score of Messiah re-orchestrated by Mozart and 18th-century concert tickets and engravings showing key locations Hanover Square and Vauxhall Gardens where the young Mozart wowed audiences with his keyboard and violin playing in between performances of music by Handel during the child prodigy’s visit to London.

Handel’s dining room at Handel Hendrix House (Photo: Christopher Ison)

Full details from the Handel Hendrix House website.