THE ” DEAR SAXON.”

Handel’s Italy era came with a nickname. The locals loved his playing so much they called him *il caro Sassone*—“the dear Saxon.”

In Venice he entered a friendly rivalry with Domenico Scarlatti. They kept testing each other at the keyboard, and the verdict became a classic split decision: Scarlatti was the king of the harpsichord, but Handel took the crown on the organ.

Later Handel went to a masked ball. At some point he sat down at the harpsichord and started improvising so brilliantly that the room froze. Scarlatti arrived in disguise, listened for a moment, and then blurted out the only conclusion that made sense to him: “It’s either the Devil… or the Saxon!”

Handel earned that reputation at twenty‑one.