MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

 

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

 


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews

 


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW
Plain text for smartphones & printers


Gerard Hoffnung CDs

Advertising on
Musicweb



Donate and get a free CD

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical


Nimbus Podcast


Obtain 10% discount


Special offer 50% off

Musicweb sells the following labels
Acte Préalable
(THE Polish label)
Altus 10% off
Atoll 10% off
CRD 10% off
Hallé 10% off
Lyrita 10% off
Nimbus 10% off
Nimbus Alliance
Prima voce 10% off
Red Priest 10% off
Retrospective 10% off
Saydisc 10% off
Sterling 10% off


Follow us on Twitter

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing
sample

Sample: See what you will get

Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Senior Editor
John Quinn
Seen & Heard
Editor Emeritus
   Bill Kenny
Editor in Chief
   Vacant
MusicWeb Webmaster
   David Barker
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

Support us financially by purchasing this disc from

Support us financially by purchasing this disc from
George Frideric HANDEL (1685-1759)
Suites for Harpsichord - volume 1
Suite in D minor, HWV 428 [24:52]
Suite in A, HWV 454 (c.1705) [13:58]
Suite in E minor, HWV 438 [8:07]
Suite in C, HWV 443 (before 1707) [27:12]
Suite in G minor, HWV 439 [17:15]
Suite in G, HWV 441 [21:49]
Suite in E minor, HWV 429 [16:30]
Suite in E, HWV 430 [14:50]
Gilbert Rowland (harpsichord)
rec. Holy Trinity Church, Weston, Hertfordshire, England, 5-8 July 2010.
DIVINE ART DDA 21219 [74:57 + 71:34] 

Suites for Harpsichord - volume 2
Suite in G minor, HWV 432 [24:01]
Suite in D minor, HWV 437 (C.1706) [13:58]
Suite in F, HWV 427 [9:34]
Suite in F sharp minor, HWV 431 [10:44]
Suite in B flat, HWV 434 [9:05]
Suite in G, HWV 450 (before 1707) [13:49]
Suite in C minor, HWV 444 [10:16]
Suite in F minor, HWV 433 [14:19]
Suite in D minor, HWV 436 (?1726) [16:19]
Chaconne in G, HWV 435 (revised 1726) [12:15]
Gilbert Rowland (harpsichord)
rec. Holy Trinity Church, Weston, Hertfordshire, England, 9-12 July 2012.
DIVINE ART DDA 21220 [67:22 + 66:58] 

In the best possible sense, Handel was never predictable. To take his keyboard suites as an example: whilst one lasts a mere eight minutes, the next runs to 27; movements number typically five or six, but others have as few as three; the dance forms of tradition rub shoulders with innovative preludes, sonatas and adagios. For the four-movement suite HWV 427, dances are even dispensed with altogether, whilst the finale of HWV 443 is a chaconne with an astonishing 49 variations on one of Handel's most popular melodies.
 
In all, there are around 25 extant keyboard suites. Two collections were published during Handel's lifetime, the 'Eight Great Suites' of 1720 and the six suites comprising the 'Second Collection' of 1733. The rest are known rather modestly as the 'Miscellaneous Suites'. Dates of composition are sometimes conjecture, but range from the first decade of the 18th century to as late as 1739.
 
These are the first two of likely three double-disc volumes from Scottish harpsichordist Gilbert Rowland, in marvellously detailed productions from Divine Art. Rowland's complete recording of Antonio Soler's sonatas on 13 CDs for Naxos was rightly met with critical acclaim. This cycle is destined to find similar degrees of approbation. Handel's music is so overwhelmingly communicative and all-round glorious that a performer of Rowland's calibre could almost get away with playing in gloves. In fact, he combines amazingly graceful virtuosity with original filigree and huge experience to give readings that all listeners should respond to. The two-manual period replica harpsichord (1750) has a sweet, rounded sound and action that react superbly to Rowland's texturising touch and Handel's illuminative imagination.
 
Rowland's own notes for the trilingual booklets provide a paragraph or two of good detail in limpid language on each work. Though these sets were recorded two years apart, Rowland et al have sensitively used not only the same venue but recorded at the same time of year, giving audio that is consistent as well as generally pleasing.
 
Those ill-advisedly intending to invest in only one volume will have to choose between turquoise and mauve - that is, on the basis of cover colour, because both items are equally excellent in all other regards. Each album ends aptly in memorable style: volume 1 with the Suite in E, HWV 430, the last movement of which throws up one of Handel's most popular tunes, known as the 'Harmonious Blacksmith' (albeit not to Handel). Volume 2 meanwhile finishes with the well-known and emphatic Chaconne in G - self-evidently not a suite but published in the 1733 collection.  

Byzantion
Contact at artmusicreviews.co.uk

See also review of Volume 1 by Brian Wilson