Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759): Organ Concertos

00:00 Organ Concerto in G minor, Op 4 no 1: Larghetto e staccato - Allegro - Adagio - Andante
15:36 Organ Concerto in B flat major, Op 4 no 2: A tempo ordinario e staccato - Allegro - Adagio e staccato - Allegro ma non presto
25:02 Organ Concerto in G minor, Op 4 no 3: Adagio - Allegro - Adagio - Allegro
35:12 Organ Concerto in F major, Op 4 no 4: Allegro - Andante - Adagio - Allegro, Choral Alleluia+
49:44 Organ Concerto in F major, Op 4 no 5: Larghetto - Allegro - Alla siciliana - Presto
58:04 Organ Concerto in B flat major, Op 7 no 3: Allegro - Organo ad libitum: Adagio - Organo ad libitum: Fugue - Spiritoso - Menuets I/II alternativo
1:15:29 Organ Concerto in B flat major, Op 7 no 1: Andante - Largo e piano - Allegro - Bourrée: Allegro
1:31:20 Organ Concerto in A major, Op 7 no 2: Ouverture - A tempo ordinario - Organo ad libitum: Larghetto - Allegro
1:46:16 Harp Concerto in B flat major, Op 4 no 6*: Andante allegro - Larghetto - Allegro moderato
1:59:26 Organ Concerto in D minor, Op 7 no 4: Adagio - Allegro così così - Organo ad libitum: Prelude - Allegro
2:13:28 Organ Concerto No 5 in G minor, Op 7 no 5: Staccato ma non troppo allegro, Organo ad libitum: Adagio - Andante larghetto e staccato, Organo ad libitum: Adagio - Menuet - Gavotte
2:25:32 Organ Concerto in B flat major, Op 7 no 6: Pomposo - Organo ad libitum: Allemande - Air: A tempo ordinario

Paul Nicholson, organ of St Lawrence, Whitchurch
The Brandenburg Consort, directed from the harpsichord by Roy Goodman
*Frances Kelly, harp
+Members of the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge - Timothy Brown, director

The English instruments for which Handel wrote his organ concertos and on which he was such a noted exponent were very different to the opulent German organs for which Bach was composing his great Preludes, Toccatas and Fugues. The English instrument was much smaller, consisting usually of just one keyboard (or manual), had fewer stops with no blazing reeds or sparkling mixtures (stops which bring into play several different pitched pipes for a single note), and made a much softer, sweeter sound – making it ideal, in fact, for accompanying a chorus and blending with an orchestra in both ensemble and solo roles: which is no doubt why the eighteenth-century organ concerto was a uniquely English genre.

From about 1739 Handel started putting dynamic markings into the organ parts of his concertos (such as the quick alternation of forte and piano to create echo effects in the second movement of Op 7 No 4); this would imply that he was now writing for an organ with two manuals. Similarly it is clear that by 1740 there was a pedal-board attached to the organ at Lincoln’s Inn Fields as Handel specifies the use of pedals in Op 7 No 1. (He never repeated this experiment – pedals are not employed in any other concerto.) There is also only one occasion (the second movement of Op 4 No 4) where Handel gives detailed instructions in the manuscript as to which stops the organist should use – Open Diapason, Stopt Diapason and Flute (a sonority faithfully captured here but unavailable on most small chamber organs).

Few English organs of Handel’s time survive in their original form today. However the instrument at St Lawrence, Whitchurch, on the edge of the Canons estate to the north of London can trace its history back to the organ built by Gerard Smith for the church during Handel’s period in the employ of the Duke of Chandos who resided for at least part of each year at Canons. The rebuild of this organ by Martin Goetze and Dominic Gwynn in 1994 deliberately set out to re-create the organ Handel had known and played (while at the same time enlarging it to serve its contemporary purpose of accompanying church services). It is this organ which has been used in the present recording.

The first set of six Organ Concertos, known as Opus 4, was published by John Walsh of London on 4 October 1738.

Capitalizing on the success of the Op 4 concertos Walsh published ‘A Second Set of 6 Concertos for Harpsichord or Organ’ in 1740. The precedence given to the harpsichord on the title page was a shrewd commercial gesture – most amateurs had access to a harpsichord, while relatively few had an organ at their disposal – but clearly these works were intended first and foremost for the organ. Only two of the works from this second set (which bears no opus number) were original organ concertos, the remainder consisting of transcriptions of the Concerti grossi Op 6.

In 1761, two years after Handel’s death, Walsh published ‘A Third Set of 6 Concertos for the Harpsichord or Organ’ as Opus 7. Handel certainly had had no intention of producing six further concertos and while some of Op 7 were original works largely put together by John Christopher Smith junior, who had intimate knowledge of Handel’s later scores, Walsh had to scrape around to find sufficient material to make six credible organ concertos.

Marc Rochester

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