We listen to Handel

I am not a big fan of the famous ZhZL series of the Young Guard Publishing House-other volumes are simply wonderful, but there are also low-end. In general, we must focus on the author of the corresponding biography to a greater extent than on a hero, whose life is the theme of the book.

However, in this case, the situation is just the opposite: I read the biography of Handel, because to a certain extent I know his music, but about the author of this book, Larisa Valentinovna Kirillina, I just knew nothing.

Meanwhile, the famous musicologist and teacher, professor of the Moscow Conservatory wrote not just an interesting biography for experts - I think this is a good book for everyone . Thus, the author chose the most difficult genre - to write just about the complex . And this - from my point of view - succeeded.

To prepare a biography of the composer is a very difficult task, especially when the reader can know some about his music and that is why he seeks to learn more about the life of the one who created this music, expecting the correlation of “life” and “creativity”-whether, relatively speaking, “harmony” or “contrast”.

The author telling us about Handel must also find a way to “reconcile” today's reader with the “message” that was contained in the work of the composer of the Baroque era with the then spectators and listeners. Here I am happy to observe the true luck of the author of the book - Larisa Kirillina does not “get stuck” either on the description of the works of George Friedrich Handel, or to the reaction of the then public.

It should be noted the most important actual data regarding the life and work of Handel, cited by the author at the end of the book.

In conclusion, I will allow myself an assessment that should have been represented by a banality in relation to the book of a deliberately public purpose. The book of L.V. Kirillina contains, as it seems to me, everything you need for an interested reader; Moreover, it has enough of different material for the one who, after reading the book, will want to turn directly to Handel's music - perhaps for the first time.

Rebekah Frumkin