BaL 23.03.13 - Handel's Suites for keyboard HWV 426-33

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

9.30am Building a Library
As part of Baroque Spring a survey of recordings of Handel's eight Great Suites for keyboard HWV 426-33. Contemporary audiences knew Handel above all as a virtuoso performer and improviser at the keyboard, and his eight Great Suites for the harpsichord, published in London in 1720, could be heard in every self-respecting musical household in the country. But today he's known far more as an opera composer, and these suites have been overshadowed perhaps by those by Bach, Couperin and Scarlatti. Simon Heighes looks to redress the balance.

Available versions:-

Isolde Ahlgrimm (harpsichord)
Racha Arodaky (piano)
Michael Borgstede (harpsichord)
Alan Cuckston (harpsichord)
Philip Edward Fisher (piano)
Glenn Gould (piano)
Angela Hewitt (piano)
Cristiano Holtz (harpsichord)
Keith Jarrett (piano)
Paul Nicholson (harpsichord)
Ludger Rémy (harpsichord)
Sviatoslav Richter & Andrei Gavrilov (piano)
Scott Ross (harpsichord)
Gilbert Rowland (harpsichord)
Ragna Schirmer (piano)
Lisa Smirnova (piano)
Jory Vinikour (harpsichord)
Sophie Yates (harpsichord)

[Nick Armstrong]

Interesting. I have the Richter/Gavrilov sets on EMI... Haven't listened to them much since my big Handel phase

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I don't have any of these works, so this is a "must listen" for me.

[waldo]

Are we talking about all eight suites or will a mere selection do?

Some of those listed above, for instance, only recorded a few. Gould, I believe, only did the first four suites and Angela Hewitt has only recorded two in total. Perahia (not listed) has recorded three and he would be a front-runner if three was enough.......

[amateur51]

Interesting. I have the Richter/Gavrilov sets on EMI... Haven't listened to them much since my big Handel phase

A great set but perhaps a tad eccentric for today's tastes

[waldo]

A great set but perhaps a tad eccentric for today's tastes

Awful sound, too. I just put mine on: it sounded as if someone was frying a battered cod under the microphone.

[Nick Armstrong]

Awful sound, too. I just put mine on: it sounded as if someone was frying a battered cod under the microphone.

Yes I remember the sound being dodgy.... though my recollection is of the recording being made in someone's garage rather than a fish bar!!

Welcome waldo, by the way I'd better stop using that as a nickname here for my mate 'waldhorn' ...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

A great set but perhaps a tad eccentric for today's tastes

What are today's tastes?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

What are today's tastes?

Silly behaviour in the name of charity?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

[MickyD]

I'll be listening to this with great interest. I find Sophie Yates' playing very much to my liking, and her harpsichord is beautifully captured by the Chandos team. But alas her 3 CDs don't include all of Handel's keyboard works - indeed none of the sets above are complete to the best of my knowledge. We still need an intégrale - Rousset or Staier would be great to have.

[BBMmk2]

This is of interest to mke as well, because, being a handel fan myself, I belookinh out fpr either the harpsichord or the piano recordings. Not sure which artists tolook out for though, at present?

[Nick Armstrong]

Not sure which artists tolook out for though, at present?

BAL sounds like the programme for you then!

[Roehre]

(...) But today he's known far more as an opera composer,(...)

Things have changed a lot the last 3 or 4 decades in that respect: in the mid 1970s most of Handel's operas were hardly if at all represented in the catalogue. Mackarass' Julio Cesare on Archiv/DGG (iirc 1973) was the first (complete) recording of the piece. The Watermusic, Fireworks, the (organ) concerti and these suites were essentially representing Handel's output in those day. The Messiah was the exception confirming this "rule".

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I belookinh out fpr either the harpsichord or the piano recordings.

Too much vibrato on the piano recordings.