George Frideric Handel, traveled much more widely after his birth in Halle in the Southern part of Saxony. As a young firebrand, he went to Italy where he created a sensation before settling in London for the last 40 years of his life. There a series of superb concertos, operas, and oratorios poured out of him: Messiah is simply one of dozens of immortal vocal masterpieces he produced there.