Georg Friedrich Händel (23 February 1685 (O.S.) [(N.S.) 5 March] – 14 April 1759)
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"Handel is the greatest composer who ever lived. I would bare my head and kneel at his grave."
Ludwig van Beethoven, 1824
As a young man, Handel’s entree into high society and the company of other gifted musicians was his astonishing talent for improvisation.
Besides the improvisation of fantasies, fugues and variations, Handel’s own keyboard works must have formed a major part of his repertoire at that time. Whether he composed these works first, or wrote them down shortly after initial improvisation in public, is not clear. In any case, by the time he was properly established in his next major port of call (London, 1710, after a short stop at the court of Hanover), Handel’s keyboard oeuvre was substantial, and by about 1717, virtually complete.
For reasons unknown, some years went by before Handel got around to publishing his keyboard works. In fact, only in response to an unauthorized Netherlands/English edition (the so-called “Roger/Walsh” print), did he release his first set of harpsichord works - the [8] Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin... (London, 1720).
But some clouds indeed have silver linings. In this case, the very fact that he had been pirated in the first place was proof that he had “arrived”, so to speak, as a successful composer.
Handel had no way of controlling the activities of foreign publishers such as Jeanne Roger, the Netherlands half of the Roger/Walsh pirate operation; but he eventually struck a deal with Roger’s English partner, John Walsh. By 1733, with the publication of the [9] Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin... Second Volume, Walsh had become Handel’s regular publisher - but not before he appears to have robbed the composer at least one more time with a pirated edition in 1727!
Sorting through and evaluating the 17 works in the two keyboard volumes for their exact chronological and thematic provenances would be a complicated task. The order and distribution of the suites between the Volume One (1720) and Volume Two (1733) is arbitrary, and reflects nothing of the history of their composition. Volume Two, for example, was merely a further issue of older works which could as easily have found their way into Volume One. Like many prolific composers of the eighteenth century, Handel revised, mixed, remixed, reordered and recycled his works so often as to defy retracing.
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Laura Alvini - Suites de Pièces pour le clavecin (1720)
[2 CDs]
Recording Location: Chiesa S. Giovanni Battista di Calamosco - Bologna - June 10/14, 1991
Flemish harpsichord, copy of Dulcken's instrument, built by Franco Barrucchieri, Florence, 1983.
10 - 1991 NUOVA ERA RECORDS Download link
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Olivier Baumont - Suites pour clavecin 1720 & 1733 [2CDs]
Recording CD1: 28/11 - 1/12/1995, Château de Touvet, France
Recording CD2: November 27-29, 1996; Fenton House, London
Harpsichords CD1: Nicolas Dumont (1707), Iohannes Couchet (1652) & Anonymous Italian "F.A." (1677)
Harpsichords CD2: Ioannes Ruckers (1612), Burkat Shudi (1761)
ERATO 0630-14886-2 & 3984-20196-2 Download link
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Michael Borgstede - Suites de Pieces pour le Clavecin [4 CDs]
Recorded: 10-13 October 2007, 21-25 January 2008
Remonstrantse Doopsgenizinde Church, Deventer, The Netherlands
Franco-Flemish harpsichord after Joannes Ruckers (CD1 & 2)
German harpsichord after Michael Mietke (CD3 & 4)
Brilliant Classics 93713 Download link
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Alan Cuckston - Harpsichord Suites Nos. 1 - 8
[2 CDs]
Recorded at Harrogate College Chapel North Yorkshire in April 1990
NAXOS 8.520017 Download link
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Ottavio Dantone - Suites de Pièces pour le clavecin
[2 CDs]
CD1 Recording: Villa Medici, Briosco (Italy) - 10/1998
Harpsichord; M Kramer from P. Taskin (Paris 1769)
ARTS 47698-2 & 47699-2 Download link
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Richard Egarr - 8 'Great' Suites
[2 CDs]
Recorded September, 2012 at Potton Hall, Suffolk, England
Harspichord by Joel Katzman, Amsterdam,1991 (after Ruckers, Antwerp, 1638)
HMU 907581.82 Download link
Thanks to the unknown uploader
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Kenneth Gilbert - Suites pour clavecin
[2 CDs]
Enregistrement octobre 1976
Clavecin Hubert Bédard, Paris 1974, d'aprés Taskin
HMA 190447.48 Download link
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Glen Gould - Suites for Harpsichord Nos. 1 - 4
[Remastered]
Sony Music Entertainment 88875032222 Download link
Thanks to the unknown uploader
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Huguette Grémy-Chauliac - Les premières œuvres pour clavecin
Enregistrements réalisés le 28 et 29 mai 1980 (piàces 10, 15 et 24) et du 10 juillet 1980 en l'église luthérienne do Bon-Secours, à Paris
Clavecin William Dowd, d'aprés Pasqual Tasquin (1770)
FYCD 093 Download link
Thanks to the unknown uploader
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Cristiano Holtz - Suite de Pieces pour le Clavecin
Recorded in June 2009 at the Palace Chapel of Winsen, Germany
Harpsichord Matthias Kramer, Rosengarten 2004, after Christian Zell (c. 1683-1763) and Johann Christoph Fleischer (1676 - c. 1728)
RAMÉE LC 13819 Download link
Thanks to the unknown uploader
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Antony Newman - Harpsichord Suites , HWV 426 - 433
Recording: Eric Herx Harpsichord Studio, Cambridge, MA, March 1991
German Double Harpsichord by Eric Herz, 1990, after Haas, Hamburg (c18th century)
SONY SBK 62834 Download link
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Paul Nicholson - The Eight Harpsichord Suites
[2 CDs]
Recorded on 11-13, 29,30 April and 1 May 1994
Hyperion CDD22045 Download link
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Siegbert Rampe - Clavier Works
Harpsichord by Matthias Kramer, Rosengarten 2004, reconstructed after Christian Zell, Hamburg 1728
Recording: August, 11, 2008 Ehem
MDG 341 1537-2 Download link
Thanks to the unknown uploader
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Ludger Rémy - Suites de Pieces pour le Clavecin
[2 CDs]
Harpsichord after Michael Mietke, Berlin ca. 1700 by Bruce Kennedy, Amsterdam 2000
Recording: Sendsaal, December 10-13, 2001 & February 18-20, 2002
CPO 999 940-2 Download link
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Scott Ross - 8 Suites pour clavecin (1720)
[2 CDs]
Enregistrement réalisé en 03/1984, Salle Adyar, Paris
Clavecin David Ley, d'aprés François-Etienne Blanchet (1733)
ERATO 2292-45452-2 Download link
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Colin Tilney - The Harpsichord Suites
[2 CDs]
Recording: Berlin, Studio Lankwitz, 11/1873 (CD1; Hamburg-Harburg, Friederich-Ebert-Halle, 12/1973 (CD2)
The Christian Zell Harpsichord, 1728 (Suites 1, 3, 6, 7)
The J.C. Fleisher Harpsuchord, 1724 (Suites 2, 4, 5, 8)
ARCHIV 427 170-2 Download link
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Bob van Asperen - The Great Harpsichord Works
Recorded November 3-5, 1995 in the Lutherse Kerk, Haarlem
Reecorded on a copy of Pascal Taskin instrument of 1764, constructed by Michael Johnson, 1979
SONY SK 68 260 Download link
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Blandine Verlet - Les Huit Grandes Suites
[2 CDs]
Enregisrement réalisé a Paris en juin 1973 (Suites V à VIII) et en octobre 1873 (Suites I à IV)
Clavecin Dowd
ASTRÉE E 8655 Download link
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Sophie Yates - Harpsichord Works
[3 CDs]
Recording venue Forde Abbey, Somerset; 20-22 April 1998 [Vol.1]; 1-3 June 2000 & 12 June 2001; 11-13 June 2001
Copy of a Colmar Ruckers harpsichord by Mackinnon and Waitzman (Vol1)
Copy of a double manual harpsichord Colmar Ruckers (1624) by Andrew Garlick (1998)
CHANDOS 0644 - CHANDOS 0669 - CHANDOS 0688 Download link
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And, finally, here you can find the Trevor Pinnock's CD.
"Handel is the greatest composer who ever lived. I would bare my head and kneel at his grave."Ludwig van Beethoven, 1824
As a young man, Handel’s entree into high society and the company of other gifted musicians was his astonishing talent for improvisation.
Besides the improvisation of fantasies, fugues and variations, Handel’s own keyboard works must have formed a major part of his repertoire at that time. Whether he composed these works first, or wrote them down shortly after initial improvisation in public, is not clear. In any case, by the time he was properly established in his next major port of call (London, 1710, after a short stop at the court of Hanover), Handel’s keyboard oeuvre was substantial, and by about 1717, virtually complete.
For reasons unknown, some years went by before Handel got around to publishing his keyboard works. In fact, only in response to an unauthorized Netherlands/English edition (the so-called “Roger/Walsh” print), did he release his first set of harpsichord works - the [8] Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin... (London, 1720).
But some clouds indeed have silver linings. In this case, the very fact that he had been pirated in the first place was proof that he had “arrived”, so to speak, as a successful composer.
Handel had no way of controlling the activities of foreign publishers such as Jeanne Roger, the Netherlands half of the Roger/Walsh pirate operation; but he eventually struck a deal with Roger’s English partner, John Walsh. By 1733, with the publication of the [9] Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin... Second Volume, Walsh had become Handel’s regular publisher - but not before he appears to have robbed the composer at least one more time with a pirated edition in 1727!
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| Frontispiece 1720 |
Laura Alvini - Suites de Pièces pour le clavecin (1720)[2 CDs]
Recording Location: Chiesa S. Giovanni Battista di Calamosco - Bologna - June 10/14, 1991
Flemish harpsichord, copy of Dulcken's instrument, built by Franco Barrucchieri, Florence, 1983.
10 - 1991 NUOVA ERA RECORDS Download link
Olivier Baumont - Suites pour clavecin 1720 & 1733 [2CDs]Recording CD1: 28/11 - 1/12/1995, Château de Touvet, France
Recording CD2: November 27-29, 1996; Fenton House, London
Harpsichords CD1: Nicolas Dumont (1707), Iohannes Couchet (1652) & Anonymous Italian "F.A." (1677)
Harpsichords CD2: Ioannes Ruckers (1612), Burkat Shudi (1761)
ERATO 0630-14886-2 & 3984-20196-2 Download link
Michael Borgstede - Suites de Pieces pour le Clavecin [4 CDs]Recorded: 10-13 October 2007, 21-25 January 2008
Remonstrantse Doopsgenizinde Church, Deventer, The Netherlands
Franco-Flemish harpsichord after Joannes Ruckers (CD1 & 2)
German harpsichord after Michael Mietke (CD3 & 4)
Brilliant Classics 93713 Download link
Alan Cuckston - Harpsichord Suites Nos. 1 - 8[2 CDs]
Recorded at Harrogate College Chapel North Yorkshire in April 1990
NAXOS 8.520017 Download link
Ottavio Dantone - Suites de Pièces pour le clavecin[2 CDs]
CD1 Recording: Villa Medici, Briosco (Italy) - 10/1998
Harpsichord; M Kramer from P. Taskin (Paris 1769)
ARTS 47698-2 & 47699-2 Download link
[2 CDs]
Recorded September, 2012 at Potton Hall, Suffolk, England
Harspichord by Joel Katzman, Amsterdam,1991 (after Ruckers, Antwerp, 1638)
HMU 907581.82 Download link
Thanks to the unknown uploader
[2 CDs]
Enregistrement octobre 1976
Clavecin Hubert Bédard, Paris 1974, d'aprés Taskin
HMA 190447.48 Download link
[Remastered]
Sony Music Entertainment 88875032222 Download link
Thanks to the unknown uploader
Enregistrements réalisés le 28 et 29 mai 1980 (piàces 10, 15 et 24) et du 10 juillet 1980 en l'église luthérienne do Bon-Secours, à Paris
Clavecin William Dowd, d'aprés Pasqual Tasquin (1770)
FYCD 093 Download link
Thanks to the unknown uploader
Recorded in June 2009 at the Palace Chapel of Winsen, Germany
Harpsichord Matthias Kramer, Rosengarten 2004, after Christian Zell (c. 1683-1763) and Johann Christoph Fleischer (1676 - c. 1728)
RAMÉE LC 13819 Download link
Thanks to the unknown uploader
Recording: Eric Herx Harpsichord Studio, Cambridge, MA, March 1991
German Double Harpsichord by Eric Herz, 1990, after Haas, Hamburg (c18th century)
SONY SBK 62834 Download link
[2 CDs]
Recorded on 11-13, 29,30 April and 1 May 1994
Hyperion CDD22045 Download link
Harpsichord by Matthias Kramer, Rosengarten 2004, reconstructed after Christian Zell, Hamburg 1728
Recording: August, 11, 2008 Ehem
MDG 341 1537-2 Download link
Thanks to the unknown uploader
[2 CDs]
Harpsichord after Michael Mietke, Berlin ca. 1700 by Bruce Kennedy, Amsterdam 2000
Recording: Sendsaal, December 10-13, 2001 & February 18-20, 2002
CPO 999 940-2 Download link
[2 CDs]
Enregistrement réalisé en 03/1984, Salle Adyar, Paris
Clavecin David Ley, d'aprés François-Etienne Blanchet (1733)
ERATO 2292-45452-2 Download link
[2 CDs]
Recording: Berlin, Studio Lankwitz, 11/1873 (CD1; Hamburg-Harburg, Friederich-Ebert-Halle, 12/1973 (CD2)
The Christian Zell Harpsichord, 1728 (Suites 1, 3, 6, 7)
The J.C. Fleisher Harpsuchord, 1724 (Suites 2, 4, 5, 8)
ARCHIV 427 170-2 Download link
Recorded November 3-5, 1995 in the Lutherse Kerk, Haarlem
Reecorded on a copy of Pascal Taskin instrument of 1764, constructed by Michael Johnson, 1979
SONY SK 68 260 Download link
[2 CDs]
Enregisrement réalisé a Paris en juin 1973 (Suites V à VIII) et en octobre 1873 (Suites I à IV)
Clavecin Dowd
ASTRÉE E 8655 Download link
[3 CDs]
Recording venue Forde Abbey, Somerset; 20-22 April 1998 [Vol.1]; 1-3 June 2000 & 12 June 2001; 11-13 June 2001
Copy of a Colmar Ruckers harpsichord by Mackinnon and Waitzman (Vol1)
Copy of a double manual harpsichord Colmar Ruckers (1624) by Andrew Garlick (1998)
CHANDOS 0644 - CHANDOS 0669 - CHANDOS 0688 Download link
And, finally, here you can find the Trevor Pinnock's CD.