IDAGIO | Handel: Grand Musical Entertainment – New Concertos for Organ & Orchestra (Arr. H. Albrecht) 4260330918215

Featuring

Hansjörg Albrecht
Martin Schmeding
Münchener Bach-Orchester
George Frideric Handel

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Composition History

Handel shifted from Italian opera to English oratorios and organ concertos in the 1730s due to changing public taste and competition from other composers like Nicolai Porpora, who enticed away his singers.

Compositional Technique

Unlike Bach's solo organ works, Handel's organ compositions were primarily for organ and orchestra, performed in conjunction with his oratorios, and required a solo instrument that could assert itself against a large orchestra.

Compositional Technique

For his 1738 oratorio Saul, Handel used a lavish orchestral ensemble including two trumpets, three trombones, a harp, large kettledrums borrowed from the Tower of London, and a glockenspiel.

Recording & Production

This album features new organ concertos assembled from Handel's oratorio Saul, arranged for organ and orchestra, and includes two of Handel's most famous works, The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba and Music for the Royal Fireworks, transcribed for organ.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Handel used the organ in his oratorio performances as a counterpart to the seductive vocal art of Italian castrati, such as Farinelli, who was a popular soprano castrato in London.

Composer Biography

Handel received his first organ lessons from Wilhelm Zachow at the Marktkirche in Halle, where he played a small but sonorous organ built by Georg Reichel in 1663/64.

Performer Biography

Hansjörg Albrecht, the conductor and organist on this recording, is the artistic director of the Munich Bach Choir & Bach Orchestra and has been nominated for a GRAMMY Award for his recording of Holst's The Planets.