It is not my intention
to write an analysis of the Eight
Suites for Harpsichord and the other
works on these two CDs. The programme
notes provide a brief description of
each piece which is extremely helpful
in understanding these comparatively
unknown works.
It is perhaps a sad
fact that Handel is now best known for
his Water Music and Firework
Music. However, previous generations
have lauded him for his collection of
oratorios and anthems and his contemporaries
praised him for his considerable catalogue
of operas. Unfortunately his keyboard
works hold only a minor place in the
Handelian canon. They are rarely performed
and are poorly represented in the recording
studio. Most of these keyboard works
were composed in the composer’s younger
days (1710 -1720). It must be remembered
that these Suites were extremely
popular in the composer’s lifetime even
if their stock has fallen since. The
programme notes quote the following
passage from the historian John Mainwaring:
"His [Handel’s] gift of composing
for a single instrument requires no
better evidence than his pieces for
the keyboard. The[y] are held in highest
honour…’
It is sometimes forgotten
that Handel was regarded in his day
as being a great virtuoso keyboard player.
He had a penchant for improvisation
that gained him a great reputation.
A large amount of his music for keyboard
is believed to have been lost – or was
played only once as an extemporization
in front of a privileged audience and
then forgotten.
Shortly after Handel
had settled in London he issued the
Eight Suites in 1720 although
these pieces appear to have been written
over the previous decade. Perhaps with
regard to then current fashion, the
title page was in French – Suites
de Pièces pour le Clavecin, Premier
Volume.
Without allowing this
review to descend into a musical history
lesson, it needs to be said that the
‘dance suite’ largely derived from France.
It was soon established as a set of
possible movements which eventually
became de rigueur. Most of these are
well known to musicians today – Prelude,
Sarabande, Courante, Allemande and Gigue.
The French suite differed from the keyboard
music that was being composed at this
time in Italy where the sonata was very
much the preferred form for instrumentalists.
Handel’s works should
not really be compared to Bach’s. Handel’s
Suites are very much products
of the humanist era. They are secular
works through and through. It would
be fair to say that they do not have
the frankly intellectual, or perhaps
even transcendental, content that so
much of Sebastian Bach’s keyboard music
has, however they can be enjoyed for
their own sake.
Handel’s Suites
have commanded the attention of ‘keyboardists’
ever since, although I would hazard
a guess that they rarely feature in
recitals these days. The music is most
often to be found in the piano stools
of the amateur.
This recording presents
us with what is probably the Handelian
masterpiece for harpsichord – the Eight
Suites. Coupled with this collection
are a number of other works that are
more stylized and tend toward the Italian
School.
I suggest that each
Suite is listened to as a separate
work. Do not just put this CD on the
player and sit back with the Times crossword;
each Suite well deserves to be
considered as a separate entity and
enjoyed in its own right.
I must confess that
I do not know the playing of Ottavio
Dantone so perhaps a few comments are
in order. As a young man he studied
both organ and harpsichord at the Milan
Conservatory. Since then he has devoted
most of his life to the perusal of early
music – both as a theoretician and a
player. He is noted for his contribution
to the study of ‘basso continuo’ which
serves him well in the realization of
chamber music.
He spends much of the
year in giving recitals on the harpsichord
and fortepiano, working as soloist and
with chamber ensembles. He has travelled
extensively in the United States, the
Far East and Europe, giving recitals
in all the main musical venues. His
growing catalogue of CDs includes works
by Vivaldi, the Forty Eight,
Scarlatti and Purcell.
What I have particularly
noticed in his playing on these two
discs is the apparent scholarship which
underlies his interpretation of these
dance suites. He is able to create a
tremendous variety of tonal quality
and voicing on the harpsichord which
leads to continual interest for the
listener; it never palls on the ear.
The ornamentation does not appear to
be over fussy. A balance is struck between
a sense of great energy and a kind of
laid-back approach which does not try
to makes these pieces into an Italian
opera!
There are a few other
versions of these Eight Suites.
The one which I know best is the EMI
(69337) release with Sviatoslav Richter
and Andrei Gavrilov plus the next ‘eight’
between them. Of course the piano is
my instrument, so I love the ‘fluency
and sensitivity’ of this edition. However
I am not sure that these works transfer
to the piano as well as Bach does. For
example the Chromatic Fantasia and
Fugue by Sebastian Bach has a kind
of timeless quality about it that seems
to me so perfectly suited to a modern
concert grand piano as well as the ‘original’
instrument for which it was composed.
The Handel Suites do not transfer
so well away from the harpsichord. I
say this with a little reservation as
I have long enjoyed playing these works
on the piano!
The other benchmark
edition of these Suites is on
Hyperion (CDA 22045) with Paul Nicholson
as soloist. Included on this recording
are the Six Fugues or Voluntaries
for Organ or Harpsichord and two
other fugues.
The sound quality on
this present CD is excellent and allows
the detail of the playing to be clearly
heard. Unfortunately the CD covers are
a little ‘iffy’. I am not sure I like
nineteen moody studio photographs of
the instrumentalist staring at me. In
fact it is one of those covers I would
flick past if it were in a browser –
it looks a bit cheap.
However, artistic design
of the CD cover is not everything. I
feel that the present recording by Ottavio
Dantone compares favourably with the
Hyperion release – at least for the
Suites. It should become a
if not the definitive edition.
John France