Handel Festival, Halle

The Handel Festival in Halle ( Saale) are the largest music festival of the state of Saxony- Anhalt. The Festival in George Frideric Handel's birthplace are the center of European Handel care.

In 1922 there was the first Handel Festival in Halle. Only in 1929, after the founding of the Handel Society in 1925 by Hermann Abert, a festival was held again. With the 250th anniversary of Handel 1935, the occasion for another festival was given.

Shortly after the war founded Erich Neuss, Max Schneider, former Hallische Cultural Affairs Herbert Koch and others a new Halle Handel Society to receive the tradition of the Handel Festival again. 1948, was from the State Theatre, the Evangelical School of Church Music and the Music Academy is organizing another festival in the recently completed Handel House.

The festival will take place in June every year since 1952 and will be officially discharged from the town hall. There is a close cooperation between the staff of the Martin -Luther- University Halle- Wittenberg and the editorial staff of the Halle Handel Edition for this project. Since 1993, the Handel Prize is awarded as part of the Festival.

At the annual festival at least a Handel opera at the Opera House hall and a guest presentation is additionally listed at the Goethe Theatre in Bad Lauchstaedt. The Festival is also influenced by the performance of works by Handel of related composers from Saxony- Anhalt. Since 1922, 34 of the 42 Handel operas were performed at the festival in over 100 productions. The stated aim of the festival is to bring the audience almost the complete works of Handel.

2006: Beginning of the cooperation with the Leipzig Bach Festival, with the aim to attract more international visitors.

Musicologist and specialist in German Clemens Birnbaum is since August 1, 2009 Director of the Handel House Foundation and Artistic Director of the Handel Festival in Halle ( Saale). The Directorate of the Handel Festival is located in the Händel -Haus, the birthplace of the composer. There is also a music museum with a permanent exhibition on the life and work of Handel.

2013 had the Handel Festival in 2013 canceled in the wake of the floods in Central Europe. The reimbursement of sponsors Gelden, Ticket prices and artists' fees has raised concerns whether the Handel Festival in Halle are therefore also at risk in the future or are faced with disaster.