Handel - Organ Concertos - Nicholson, c Goodman

Georg Frederick Handel's organ concertos are among those works which, despite their widespread popularity, have remained in some respects unknown: for one thing they have often been misunderstood by audiences from Handel's time right down to the present day, and for another, in the absence of critical study of the original sources, some of them have come down to us in considerably corrupted.

The Hamburg musical writer Johann Mattheson described Handel as the greatest organist of his time, comparable only with Johann Sebastian Bach. It is, therefore, all the more surprising that Handel was 49 before he wrote his first major works for organ, that no organ fugues, chorale preludes or other organ music in any of the traditional forms can be found among his works, and that his complete oeuvre of organ music consists of concertos which look at first sight as though they had been intended for the harpsichord.

The reasons for this state of affairs are to be found in Handel's dependence on the Italian secular style, in the prevalence in England of organs without pedals and possessing few mixture stops, an in the fact that it was not until he gave his first concert performances of oratorios around 1735 that Handel felt the need of instrumental interludes, in which he could demonstrate his mastery of the organ - which was already required as a continuo instrument in the oratorio. The derivation of the organ concerto from the concerto grosso is demonstrated most clearly in the Concerto Op. 4 No. 3, the original version of which is dominated by a principal violin and principal cello, organ solo passages being restricted to the second movement. In a later arrangement Handel omitted the string concertino, and assigned a more prominent role to the organ.

Apart from a few exceptions Handel's organ concertos are chamber music, to be played on a positive organ which does not hamper the exercise of virtuosity in the playing of the solo part and the plastic shaping of the melodies, using registration generally restricted in solo passages to open and gedackt 8 ft. and 4 ft., and accompanied by an orchestra small enough to ensure that the tone of this chamber instrument will not be overwhelmed. Performances in churches, with the solo part played on a large organ, combined with a "spiritual misunderstanding" of these primarily secular concertos, have led to the erroneous public image of them as being sternly northern-Protestant in character, whereas in fact southern-classical serenity is most in evidence, provided that Handel's original intentions are observed.

Tracklist

# Organ Concerto in G minor, Op.4/1, HWV 289
Composed by George Frideric Handel
with Roy Goodman, Paul Nicholson, Brandenburg Consort

# Organ Concerto in B flat major, Op.4/2, HWV 290
Composed by George Frideric Handel
with Roy Goodman, Paul Nicholson, Brandenburg Consort

# Organ Concerto in G minor, Op.4/3, HWV 291
Composed by George Frideric Handel
with Roy Goodman, Paul Nicholson, Brandenburg Consort

# Organ Concerto in F major, Op.4/4, HWV 292
Composed by George Frideric Handel
with Roy Goodman, Paul Nicholson, Brandenburg Consort

# Organ Concerto in B flat, Op.7/3, HWV 308
Composed by George Frideric Handel
with Roy Goodman, Paul Nicholson, Brandenburg Consort

# Organ Concerto in B flat, Op.7/1, HWV 306
Composed by George Frideric Handel
with Roy Goodman, Paul Nicholson, Brandenburg Consort

# Organ Concerto in A major, Op.7/2, HWV 307
Composed by George Frideric Handel
with Roy Goodman, Paul Nicholson, Brandenburg Consort

# Organ Concerto in B flat major, Op.4/6, HWV 294 (originally for harp)
Composed by George Frideric Handel
with Roy Goodman, Frances Kelly, Brandenburg Consort

# Organ Concerto in D minor, Op.7/4, HWV 309
Composed by George Frideric Handel
with Roy Goodman, Paul Nicholson, Brandenburg Consort

# Organ Concerto in G minor, Op.7/5, HWV 310
Composed by George Frideric Handel
with Roy Goodman, Paul Nicholson, Brandenburg Consort

# Organ Concerto in B flat major, Op.7/6, HWV 311
Composed by George Frideric Handel
with Roy Goodman, Paul Nicholson, Brandenburg Consort

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