David Stewart wrote: >Nick Perovich wrote: > >>I read Andrew Carlan's remark as simply a typo, "Haydn" for "Handel." >>Wasn't it Handel whom Beethoven seemed to worship as the ultimate master, >>declaring him "the father of us all," or something of that sort? > >No. That was Haydn (in tears, apparently) about Handel after he had heard >the Hallelujah chorus. Oh, what a tangled web we weave. Apparently Handel had several noteworthy admirerers. Beethoven was one of them. According to *The Beethoven Encyclopedia* by Paul Nettl (Professor of musicology at Indiana University), Beethoven, "in a conversation with Stumpf (1824)...call[ed] Handel the greatest composer who ever lived." Shortly before he died, Beethoven had obtained Handel's complete works. Walter Meyer