Handel: Organ Concertos Op 7

Editor's Choice - Gramophone Magazine October 2009

"These spry, shapely performances, in which Richard Egarr multi-tasks as organist, director and harpsichordist, bring lustre and spirit to the six organ concertos that Handel composed over a span of years towards the end of his life, and to a group of other works.
Egarr responds as Handel would have wished in those movements in the Second, Third and Fourth Concertos where the organist is invited to improvise something of his own invention: given the period credentials of these interpretations, it would have been anachronistic to do anything wild, but Egarr finds a mode of expression that fits in with the general Handelian atmosphere. He also contributes a short movement to the celebrated F major Concerto, subtitled "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale", which, together with two impressive chaconnes and a fugue for harpsichord, lies outside Op 7 but which adds a chirpy coda to an attractive two-disc set."
Telegraph

Handel's last great published set of instrumental concertos arrived posthumously in 1761. Played here on a chamber organ with real-time improvisations and enlarged continuo support, these magnificent concertos (including the beloved The Cuckoo and the Nightingale) show Handel at his glorious and compositional best, and allow a concentrated view of his style from the last 20 years of his life. Richard Egarr has worked with all types of keyboards and has performed repertoire ranging from 15th-century organ intabulations, to Dussek, Schumann and Chopin on early pianos, to Berg and Peter Maxwell Davies on modern piano. He is in great demand both as soloist and as accompanist for many of today's finest artists. As a conductor, Richard Egarr has presented a wide range of repertoire - from Baroque opera and oratorio to works by 20th -century composers. He is Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music, with whom he has recorded Bach Harpsichord Concertos and Brandenburg Concertos.Together they are currently releasing a series of Handel's Opp.1-7, of which the Solo Sonatas Op.1, the Concerti Grossi Op.3 and Organ Concertos Op.4 are already available.

Organ Goetze & Gwynn (1998) based on the chamber organs of Richard Bridge and Thomas Parker (recorded with the kind permission of the Handel House Museum) CD2, tracks 11-15: Four-stop chamber organ by Robin Jennings (2005); Harpsichord CD2, tracks 8-9: Malcolm Greenhalgh, 2005, after a 2-manual Franco-Flemish original; CD2, track 10: Joel Katzman, Amsterdam, 1991, after Ruckers, Antwerp, 1638