By 1702 Handel was renowned in Northern Germany as a musician and composer, but mixed receptions for his operas in Hamburg in 1705 caused him to travel to Italy to refine his operatic skills, where he met both Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti and heard the music of Vivaldi and Corelli. In Rome, where the Pope had banned musical drama, he came under the patronage of some of the city’s leading churchmen. Full of energy and exuberance, the works on this recording combine the contrapuntal cast of German music with the melody-led style of Vivaldi and Corelli, yet the music is unmistakably Handelian.