Richard Egarr, Academy of Ancient Music - Handel: Organ Concertos, Op. 7 (2009) [SACD]

Handel’s last great published set of instrumental concertos arrived posthumously in 1761. Played here on a chamber organ with real-time improvisations & enlarged continuo support, these magnificent concertos (including the beloved ‘The Cuckoo & the Nightingale’) show Handel at his glorious & compositional best, & allow a concentrated view of his style from the last 20 years of his life.

For Handel, the organ was not 1 of his most favorite instruments, for as rightly underlines Michel Roubinet, “Besides the 4 concertos for organ & orchestra, he only composed specifically for the organ just 1 group of 6 fugues: that is very little for a composer who was particularly prolific & had had a solid education as an organist. Furthermore, the craftsmanship of the English organ was still far from that that had been attained on the continent, & most notably in his native Germany (the pedal would appear in England relatively late, 1st with coupled pedal, then much later played independently): the instrument at his disposal in his time must have seemed very insufficient.” Published in 1761, after the composer’s death, Opus 7 is here interpreted with a chamber organ. For the rest, the “Chaconnes” in F major HWV 485 & in G major HWV 442, as well as the “Fugue in G minor HWV 264 are played on the harpsichord. Richard Egarr & the Academy of Ancient Music repeat their performance of Opus 4 (see Opus HD N°40), & once again conjure us by an inventive & penetrating approach, wherein the music resonates as it does rarely in these works. Here is high quality wine that the multicanal perfectly transcends both musically & sonically.