Ragna Schirmer - Handel: Keyboard Suites (2009)

This complete traversal of the keyboard suites of Handel (or, this being a German release, Händel) isn't for those who believe in harpsichord performance of Baroque keyboard works. German pianist Ragna Schirmer says in a booklet interview that "I try to sense what Handel wanted to express in the suites and to bring it out on a modern piano," and she uses a good deal of pedal, especially in the Preludes, more than in her recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations. If you're down with such an approach, give Ragna Schirmer a try in Handel, where the competition isn't quite as thick as it is with Bach. Schirmer's is a pianistic conception, but that doesn't mean it wanders all over the map; it's consistently thought through. Schirmer generally makes one movement, often the one marked Allegro rather than one of the dance movements, into the energy center of the entire suite. You could start with the Suite for keyboard in E minor, HWV 429 (disc 3, tracks 9-15) to get an idea. The opening Allegro is built up to a peak of intensity by means of dynamics and articulation: the notes are held longer and longer, running into each other by the movement's end with the effect of communicating a sort of ecstasy in the manner of Glenn Gould. The dances are more srhythmically traightforward. Schirmer applies a good deal of improvisation and ornamentation to the preludes and to repeats in many of the dances. The end result is that each suite takes on its own shape, and that Schirmer delivers performances that accord with her idea of Handel's keyboard music as quasi-improvisatory in nature. Nicely recorded and indicative of long engagement with the music, even if it's not for everybody.