The Handel Institute has held eleven international conferences since 1990. The choice of theme for the latest – Handel and his music for patrons – was prompted by the tercentenary of Handel's composition of Acis and Galatea for one of his most famous patrons: James Brydges, Earl of Carnarvon and later Duke of Chandos. Seventeen speakers explored the subject of patronage from a variety of angles, and their papers were complemented by two concerts held in contrasting venues.

Many of the papers dealt directly with Handel's patrons during his time in England. Five of these focused on individual patrons, and it became apparent that the differences between these patrons and the nature of their patronage were striking. Rather surprisingly, only one paper related to Handel's Cannons period: Graydon Beeks (Pomona College) considered which works James Brydges could have been referring to when he reported to John Arbuthnot on 25 September 1717 that Handel was writing ‘some Overtures to be plaied before the first lesson’. Colin Timms (University of Birmingham) spoke about Handel's relationship with another aristocratic patron, shedding light on the performances of Comus given in 1745 and 1748 at Exton Hall (Rutland), as well as on the background and patronage of Baptist Noel, Fourth Earl of Gainsborough; and Matthew Gardner (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen) gave us a much-needed insight into the way in which the musical interests of Queen Caroline and her children shaped Handel's royal patronage, charting her musical activities and investigating how the situation changed after her death in 1737. My own paper (Natassa Varka, University of Cambridge) presented new information relating to Handel's relationship with Charles Jennens. Although Jennens is usually thought of as Handel's librettist or collaborator, he must also be considered a patron, not only because he made gifts of his librettos to Handel, but also on account of his commissioning hundreds of copies of Handel's works. I was not the only speaker to use the close study of manuscript copies to gain insights into the creator of a music collection: Andrew V. Jones (University of Cambridge) employed a staggering amount of evidence to convince us that the unidentified copyist of several manuscripts in a private collection in South Germany, the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Gerald Coke Handel Collection and the Stiftung Händel-Haus was none other than Elizabeth Legh, creator of what is now the Malmesbury Collection.

Handel's London opera subscribers were the subject of two papers. Graham Cummings (University of Huddersfield) focused on the 1736–1737 season, investigating how Handel's opera company and the Opera of the Nobility fought to attract the same small audience through their choice of works. David Hunter (University of Texas Austin) took a much broader view, asking who exactly formed this small audience that was so vital to Handel's success; examination of evidence that included subscriptions and correspondence revealed that much of this support came from only a limited number of families, making up around four per cent of the aristocracy.

Although the papers mentioned so far painted a fascinating picture of the various guises that patronage could take in Handel's London, the discussion could never have been complete without a consideration of its most fundamental aspect: money. This was addressed with startling directness by two scholars, using information found in bank accounts. Carole Taylor (independent scholar, London) took us on a compelling journey through her research in several bank archives, revealing them to be a valuable but underused source of information, whereas Ellen T. Harris (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) spoke about an account held by Handel at the Bank of England in 1721. This account provided not only new evidence about where Handel lived before he moved to Brook Street, but also the starting point for a reinterpretation of some of Handel's other accounts, leading to a new understanding of the salary that Handel received from the Royal Academy of Music.

Many speakers chose to approach the theme of the conference through a study of one or more works, often widening the field of enquiry by considering works by composers other than Handel. Ivan Ćurković (Sveučilište u Zagrebu – University of Zagreb) examined vocal duets written by Attilio Ariosti for Berlin, Vienna and London, comparing them to those written by Bononcini and Handel, and considering how they were influenced by the changing contexts of rivalry and patronage. Berlin was the focus of a paper by Reinhard Strohm (University of Oxford). In this he discussed the first two operas performed by Frederick II's Italian opera company, Rodelinda (1741) and Cleopatra e Cesare (1742) by Carl Heinrich Graun and Giovanni Gualberto Bottarelli, making comparisons between these and Handel's operas on the same subjects and exploring why Frederick II chose subjects whose Handelian versions were so well known. John H. Roberts (University of California Berkeley) presented a detailed analysis of the surviving sources of Domenico Scarlatti's Narciso, which was composed in Rome in 1714 (with a different title) for Maria Casimira, widowed Queen of Poland, and was then adapted by Paolo Rolli and Thomas Roseingrave for the Royal Academy of Music's first season in 1720, when it was dedicated to Caroline, Princess of Wales. Roberts clarified the complex evolution of this opera, which – because Roseingrave inserted some of his own music into the 1720 version – included a consideration not only of chronology but also of authorial responsibility. A paper by Nastasja Gandolfo (Hochschule für Musik Würzburg) and Valeria Matacchini (independent scholar) also dealt with the issue of identifying the composer of a musical work in a joint paper that was read by Gandolfo in Matacchini's absence, taking a fresh look at the cantata Il pianto di Maria. Although this was once thought to be by Handel, it was attributed in the 1990s to Giovanni Battista Ferrandini by Juliane Riepe, Carlo Vitali, Antonello Furnari and Benedikt Poensgen. Taking into account the cantata's sources and musical style, Gandolfo and Matacchini concluded that Ferrandini is also an unlikely candidate.

Handel's own works were also well represented, and they were approached in a variety of ways. Adriana De Feo (Universität Wien) analysed the libretto of Agrippina, comparing it to its predecessors and contextualizing it in the literary climate of its time; Annette Landgraf (Hallische Händel-Ausgabe) took us through the primary musical sources of Esther, clarifying the evolution of the oratorio in the 1750s; and Judit Zsovár (independent scholar) examined Parnasso in festa, composed for the wedding celebrations of Handel's pupil Princess Anne, from a variety of angles that included analysis of the music and a consideration of the vocal styles of Giovanni Carestini and Ann Maria Strada. Finally, Tadashi Mikajiri (The Handel Institute Japan) considered whether there was a link between the musical style of Laudate pueri Dominum (hwv237) and Nisi Dominus (hwv238), their dates of composition (8 July and 13 July 1708) and the Austrian occupation of Naples on 7 July 1707. Mikajiri's presence at the conference served to reinvigorate the relationship with our Japanese colleagues and was welcomed by all.

The first of the two concerts took place at the British Library Knowledge Centre Theatre. Following an introduction by Donald Burrows, Julian Perkins and Sounds Baroque were joined by Paula Sides, Susana Gaspar and Richard Latham in a programme that included instrumental and vocal music by Agostino Steffani, Johann Krieger, Arcangelo Corelli and Handel; the highlight of the concert was the vocal trio Se tu non lasci amore, hwv193, the autograph score of which was recently acquired by the British Library with financial support from The Handel Institute. The much-anticipated second concert, entitled ‘Handel at Cannons’, enabled conference attendees to hear works written by Handel during his Cannons period in the splendid surroundings of St Lawrence, Whitchurch, Little Stanmore. The programme – performed by Adrian Butterfield and the London Handel Orchestra, the vocal soloists Grace Davidson, Charles Daniels, Nicholas Mulroy, Benedict Hymas and Edward Grint, and the organist Alastair Ross – included the anthem The Lord is my Light (hwv255) and the Te Deum in B flat major (hwv281) as well as a selection of fugues written for organ by Krieger and Handel. In the interval the audience was treated to a talk by Dominic Gwynne, who had restored the organ.

The conference ended with Terence Best being made an Honorary Fellow of The Handel Institute in recognition of his great contribution to the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe and the consequent strengthening of relations between anglophone and German scholars.