A tree that may well have inspired Handel has been found alive and well in London. Experts from the Conservation Foundation suggest that a 340-year-old plane tree (pictured left), close to where Handel stayed in Barn Elms, may well have prompted the aria ‘Ombra mai fu’ which, in the opera Serse, is addressed to that very type of plant. Handel was by no means the only composer to be inspired by all things large and leafy…
Sibelius, who lived in a woodland house, once remarked that ‘the trees speak to me’. The Trees, his Op. 75 suite for solo piano, celebrates, in turn, The Rowan, The Pine, The Aspen, The Birch and The Spruce. In 2019, Penderecki told BBC Music Magazine how he liked to go to the big trees…
