There will be a rare opportunity to stand face to face with music written in Mozart’s own hand as an unfinished manuscript goes on display at the Handel Hendrix House for a few months.
The sheet is modest in size but immense in significance. Carefully inked across the page are the opening 20 bars of a fugue – not Mozart’s own invention, but his transcription of a harpsichord work by George Frideric Handel, composed more than sixty years earlier.
Mozart was 26 when he set to work on it in 1782–83, transforming Handel’s keyboard fugue into the beginnings of a string quartet arrangement.
However, the manuscript is unfinished
Whether Mozart ever completed the arrangement remains unknown. Yet in those neatly ruled staves lies clear evidence of a lifelong musical conversation – a young Classical composer in dialogue with a Baroque master.
Mozart’s connection to Handel began early. During his family’s European tour in 1764–65, the eight-year-old prodigy arrived in London and quickly encountered Handel’s music in grand settings.
These experiences left their mark. As he matured, Mozart returned repeatedly to Handel’s fugues, oratorios and odes, studying their architecture and expressive force. He once wrote that “Handel understands effect better than any of us… when he chooses, he strikes like a thunderbolt.”
Handel through Mozart’s eyes
The new display, Handel through Mozart’s eyes, runs from 25 February to 13 September 2026 at 25 Brook Street — the very house where Handel once lived, and later home to Jimi Hendrix.
Alongside the handwritten fugue transcription, visitors can see:
- An early printed score of Messiah re-orchestrated by Mozart in 1789, revealing his respectful yet inventive engagement with Handel’s work.
- Eighteenth-century concert tickets and engravings of Hanover Square and Vauxhall Gardens, where the young Mozart performed during his London stay.
- A 1760 biography of Handel by John Mainwaring — the kind Mozart owned, studied and recommended.
The display is included with museum admission.
- Adults: £14.50
- Children (13-17): £5.00
- Children (12 and under): Free
- Students: £10.50
- National Art Pass/Historic Houses: Free
Details are here.
