Handel: Complete Organ Concertos - Simon Preston, Ursula Holliger, Trevor Pinnock, The English Concert

Handel : Complete Organ Concertos
Simon Preston, Ursula Holliger

Trevor Pinnock

The English Concert

Simon Preston : Organ Ursula Holliger : Harp Simon Standage : Violin Anthony Pleeth : Violoncello Richard Webb : Violoncello Alastair Mitchell : Bassoon Felix Warnock : Bassoon English Concert Orchestra Conductor : Trevor Pinnock

"...performances and sound are admirably fresh." - The Penguin Guide

Reviewed: Gramophone 10/1984

To embark upon all the organ concertos in Handel's Op. 4 and Op. 7 means offering listeners another opportunity of enjoying this treasure house of delights, a store so entrancing that one is tempted to hear the whole lot straight off—and indeed I could hear them twice over without any difficulty. This opening set provides the six concertos of Op. 4 plus No. 14 from Op. 17. I will state at once that we have here a first-class product which will give endless pleasure and bear a good deal of repetition. So this is perhaps a decent moment to slip in a couple of comments on the debit side. First, I would have preferred to have the organ further forward, if it is so often to be modest in its registration. If there are good reasons why it should be placed at a distance, then the registration needs perking up and the soloist's right hand must not rely so much on legato playing. Secondly, this particular instrument has an unlovable bass to its diapason stop. When upper work is added, all is well on all counts. The organ, built by John Byfield in 1766, is in the Finchcocks collection. As the concertos proceed, the integration aspect becomes even surer, and by the time No. 14 comes along, the orchestra is wonderfully warm. Concerto No. 3 is perhaps the point at which the magic really begins to take. From its elegant start, with solo and cello parts, to its brilliant final Gavotte, the texture is always interesting and the playing alive. Number 4 has some subtle and welcome pizzicato in the accompaniment and what sounds like a stowaway harp in the Andante. It bobs up again in No. 5—and then, lo and behold, takes the place of the organ in No. 6, with charm, precision and warmth. The harpist is Ursula Holliger playing a baroque harp of c1780. Number 14 is first class on all counts, and well balanced. Simon Preston maintains throughout a lively presentation, despite the production disadvantage mentioned earlier, and his ad lib, sections are always apt and interesting. My personal preferences in no way detract from the quality of his achivement. Op. 7 contains more surprises than Op. 4 and some heart-warming moments when you would least expect them. For example, the Minuet and Gavotte at the end of No. 11, scored for orchestra alone (a strange way to end an organ concerto, you may think) turn out to be two of the most delightful movements Handel ever wrote, certainly the way they are played by the English Concert. Another aspect of this second set, well served in this recording, is the amount of ad lib. playing required of the soloist. Apart from cadenzas and random effusions from time to time, Handel twice indicates the need for an Adagio e fuga—in No. 9 and 15. The composer was giving the instruction to himself. It is another matter when someone else has to pick up the threads. Simon Preston's improvisations are completely assured and beautifully worked, with individual touches and part-playing of a high order. I cannot praise enough the disciplined eagerness of The English Concert. They bring out all the fresh joy of Handel's music and their observations of his forte and piano contrasts make this device sound as though it had never been done before. Op. 7 was recorded at St John's, Armitage in Staffordshire, whose organ was built by Samuel Green in 1789-91. It comes into its own in Concerto No. 10, its solemnity mingling fraternally with two cellos and two bassoons in a deliberately learned conversation designed to make the brilliance of the subsequent D major movement all the more startling. Before the final movement, Simon Preston improvises a fugue, with pedals. His use of cornet solos, especially in the Ground Bass movement of No. 11 is very effective, but the organ occasionally produces some sour notes (the ad lib. fugue in No. 15 suffers from this). As I mentioned above, I would have liked the organ brighter and further forward, but this is a personal opinion and is not meant to diminish my warm feeling for this distinguished set.'

Reviewed: Gramophone 12/1984

My previous comments (when reviewing the LPs) about the shyness of the organ solos in some quiet movements holds good here too, though a great deal of the part writing is more easily appreciated. So too are the pizzicato strings, the harp solo in the Sixth Concerto and the speech characteristics of the organ's various stops. There is no doubt that the CD brings a lot of bonuses, which it would be a pity to miss. I look forward to hearing Op. 7 on Compact Disc.'

good-music-guide :

Organ Concertos George Frederick Handel was a colorful character. In 1709 while in Rome, he challenged his contemporary Domenico Scarlatti to a keyboard contest. While it was generally acknowledged that the two shared the prize for playing the harpsichord, Scarlatti conceded defeat to the great German when it came to the organ. Which is quite unusual because, despite his fame as an organist and improvisor, second only to the great Johann Sebastian, absolutely none of Handel's solo organ music survives, and so we have no idea of what works the two great composers played. What we are left with is Handel's three sets of six organ concertos that were all composed much later in England. But what a motley lot they are. It was a common practice in the 1700's to package and publish musical works in groups of six (hence Bach's six each Partitas, English Suites, French Suites and Brandenburg Concertos). Handel's publisher, John Walsh struggled to assemble six concertos into each group. But by various manipulations he did, but what has come down to us today is not pure, unadulterated Handel. Handel's greatest fame in England rested with his Italian-style Operas. At the premier of each new Opera and Oratorio he got into the habit of improvising at the organ. Occassionally he wrote a new concerto purely as interludes during the larger-scale works. It was out of these trifles that Walsh gathered together the Organ Concertos. The first set of six were published by Walsh in 1738 as Opus 4. These are the most genuinely Handel. Three of them were written for performances of his Oratorio Alexander's Feast, one for his Ode for St Cecelia's Day and the last in the set is actually a Harp Concerto. The Cuckoo and the Nightingale The second group of three concertos were published in 1740 with no Opus number and now called numbers 13, 14 and 15. Walsh tried to enlist Handel's assistance with this set, but with only moderate success. He made them up from two organ concertos that Handel had re-written into Concerti Grossi, and another Concerti Grosso for harpsichord. This second set does include the most famous of them all, the Organ Concerto no.13, known as The Cuckoo and the Nightingale. This sparkling concerto, in the Italian style (reminds us of Vivaldi's best) is made up of four movements. A regal Larghetto, a bright, chirpy Allegro in which the organ spectacularly imitates the call of the cuckoo and the lyrical song of the nightingale, in solo and then in duet. Then another stately Larghetto and Allegro. The final set (not so imaginatively titled A Third Set) was published after Handel's death as Opus 7. Again, some of these concerti were possibly assembled from other works of Handel. Indeed, the three movements of Op.7 no.4 probably do not belong together at all. This final set is less well known than the others. Despite their haphazard origins, Handel's Organ Concerti are as innovative and musically diverse as anything written in the baroque. While not as rich in counterpoint as Bach's Brandenburgs, they are rich in melody and feeling. From the nobility of Opus 7, no.1 to the irrepresible happiness of the Concerto in F, these are masterworks. They were certainly popular in their day. The contemporary music historian Charles Burney describes the moving sight of Handel in his old age, now completely blind, being led to the keyboard and proceding to dazzle his audience with his improvisatory skills at the organ. And improvisatory they were. Handel left much of the organ score blank, or with just key notes provided, labeled Ad libitum. The organist was left to show off his skills of improvisation. Simon Preston is one of the world's great organists. In this complete set, (his third complete recording) he performs the organ works with respect and the sense of fun that Handel had in mind for these works. Handel was regarded as the greatest composer of his day in England, yet apart from a few works (Music for the Royal Fireworks, Messiah and Water Music), his music is almost neglected today. A brilliant recording, rich in musicality and full of surprises. A three CD bargain-priced set - you can't go wrong.

handel.org : David Vickers

July 2002 Simon Preston's recordings of the complete set of Handel's organ concertos with Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert was the first to use the latest musicological research by Anthony Hicks. These recordings remain unsurpassed from a scholarly point of view, and the performances themselves remained a benchmark for at least a decade. They may not be the best versions available now but still have a lot to offer. Preston's performances are alert and still sound very vibrant and strong, yet it must be confessed that the rather harsh sound of Preston's instrument in Opus 7 verges on becoming joyless at times. Opus 4 is much better, with a particularly lovely rendition of the Harp Concerto (Op.4 no.6) featuring harpist Ursula Holliger. The English Concert play with consistent vividness, and crisp articulation abounds throughout all performances. Trevor Pinnock - a talented organist himself - is content to allow his orchestra to do the talking. Those wanting the most refreshing and stimulating performances of the repertoire ought to own the double disc set by Paul Nicholson and The Brandenburg Consort (on Hyperion, and featuring a choral alternative for Op.4 no.4), and maybe also a similar set by Ton Koopman and The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra (on Erato, and featuring one of the few versions of Op.4 no.6 with the organ as solo instrument instead of the harp). Yet neither of these superb sets feature every Handel organ concerto, and Preston's interpretations remain useful and are a generally satisfying ingredient of a good Handelian library. Although these recordings date from the earliest days of the compact disc, previous to this excellently produced reissue they were only available at full price. Now at mid-price, yet with all the superb original documentation and scholarly references to sources by Anthony Hicks retained, they are now particularly desirable acquisitions for the curious Handelian. It is unusual for a major record company to reissue 3-disc sets, and even rarer for them to reproduce old product with such attention to detail. There are some Handel gems in the Universal Classics back catalogue that have been unavailable for some time. Charles Mackerras's Saul, Neville Marriner's Jephtha, and Trevor Pinnock's Belzhazzar are all 3-disc recordings of prime importance that are currently missing from their catalogue. It is therefore to be fervently hoped that Universal Classics include them as future 'Trio' reissues.

CD 01 1. Concerto No.1 in G minor HWV28 2. Concerto No.2 in B flat major HWV290 3. Concerto No.3 in G minor HWV291 4. Concerto No.4 in F major HWV292 5. Concerto No.5 in F major HWV293 6. Concerto No.6 in B flat major for harp HWV294 CD 02 1. Concerto No.1 in B flat major HWV306 2. Concerto No.2 in A major HWV307 3. Concerto No.3 in B flat major HWV308 4. Concerto No.4 in D minor HWV309 CD 03 1. Concerto No.5 in D minor HWV310 2. Concerto No.6 in B flat major HWV311 3. Organ Concerto in F major HWV295 (The Cuckoo and the Nightingale) 4. Organ Concerto in A major HWV296 5. Organ Concerto in D minor HWV304

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