Handel: Five Great Suites For Harpsichord (London, 1720)

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[The 'Harmonious Blacksmith'] gives Koopman scope to demonstrate his virtuosity and his innate exuberance. For the most part, though, his playing seems to have acquired a degree of restraint... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2023, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 25th Nov 2022
Catalogue No: CC72923
Label: Challenge Classics
Length: 67 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Handel: Keyboard Suite, HWV 428 in D minor

Work length21:29

$6.50

$9.10

Ton Koopman (harpsichord)

Prelude (Presto)

Track length1:05

$1.00

$1.40

Allegro

Track length3:05

$1.00

$1.40

Allemande

Track length2:47

$1.00

$1.40

Courante

Track length2:00

$1.00

$1.40

Air - Double 1 - Double 2 - Double 3 - Double 4 - Double 5

Track length8:18

$1.50

$2.10

Presto

Track length4:14

$1.00

$1.40

Handel: Keyboard Suite, HWV 427 in F major

Work length8:19

$4.00

$5.60

Ton Koopman (harpsichord)

Adagio I

Track length2:04

$1.00

$1.40

Allegro I

Track length2:11

$1.00

$1.40

Adagio II

Track length1:26

$1.00

$1.40

Allegro II

Track length2:38

$1.00

$1.40

Handel: Keyboard Suite, HWV 433 in F minor

Work length11:03

$5.00

$7.00

Ton Koopman (harpsichord)

Prelude (Adagio)

Track length2:16

$1.00

$1.40

Allegro

Track length2:44

$1.00

$1.40

Allemande

Track length2:41

$1.00

$1.40

Courante

Track length1:26

$1.00

$1.40

Gigue

Track length1:56

$1.00

$1.40

Handel: Keyboard Suite, HWV 430 in E major 'The Harmonious Blacksmith'

Work length11:54

$4.00

$5.60

Ton Koopman (harpsichord)

Prelude

Track length1:55

$1.00

$1.40

Allemande

Track length3:27

$1.00

$1.40

Courante

Track length1:37

$1.00

$1.40

Air - Double 1 - Double 2 - Double 3 - Double 4 - Double 5

Track length4:55

$1.00

$1.40

Handel: Keyboard Suite, HWV 432 in G minor

Work length14:27

$6.00

$8.40

Ton Koopman (harpsichord)

Ouverture (Largo - Presto - Lentement)

Track length4:04

$1.00

$1.40

Andante

Track length2:03

$1.00

$1.40

Allegro

Track length1:44

$1.00

$1.40

Sarabande

Track length2:28

$1.00

$1.40

Gigue

Track length1:32

$1.00

$1.40

Passacaille

Track length2:36

$1.00

$1.40

About
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About

Ton Koopman is back with a selection of Handel's Great Suites for harpsichord delivered in thoroughly unique, genuine and innovative performances.

George Frideric Handel made a name for himself as a brilliant organist and harpsichordist early on in his career. As a young man, he travelled from Germany to Italy in 1707. We do not know exactly how much or what Handel composed for harpsichord while in Italy, but we know more starting from the time he settled in England. Handel composed all sorts of works for harpsichord in England, In November 1720, he published the Suites de Pieces pour le Clavecin, now known as the Eight Great Suites, his most important work for harpsichord.

The spectacular Eight Great Suites show Handel the harpsichordist at his best. The suites are made up not only of newly composed movements, but also of improved versions of pieces he had written before and of harpsichord arrangements of his own compositions for other instruments. One theme central to interpreting Handel's works for harpsichord (and the rest of his uvre, for that matter) is what to do with the dotted rhythms. In Handel's music, we regularly see a theme appearing in different rhythmic variants sometimes dotted, sometimes not, or only partially, dotted. The question, therefore, is whether to perform these rhythms uniformly throughout the piece or to play them as they were written out in each instance by the composer. I have in large part chosen the latter.

Over the course of a forty-year career Ton Koopman has appeared at the most important concert halls and festivals of the five continents. In March 2000 he received an Honorary Degree from the Utrecht University for his scholarly work on the Bach Cantatas and Passions and in February 2004 he was awarded both the prestigious Silver Phonograph by the Dutch recording industry and the VSCD Classical Music Award 2004 by the Directors of Theatres and Concert Halls of Holland. Ton Koopman is active as a guest conductor and he has worked with many prominent orchestras in Europe, the USA and Japan including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Boston Symphony, the Vienna Symphony, the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Danish Radio Orchestra and many others. He has been for eight years principal conductor of the Radio Chamber Orchestra in Holland and he is principal guest conductor of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. In the coming season he will be working with the Chicago Symphony, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Helsinki Radio Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.

Reviews

January 2023

[The 'Harmonious Blacksmith'] gives Koopman scope to demonstrate his virtuosity and his innate exuberance. For the most part, though, his playing seems to have acquired a degree of restraint which, in many movements, especially preludes and those in which slower tempos are required, is beneficial. Readers will find much to enjoy here.

May/June 2023

Koopman’s disc is a real winner. It is recorded in excellent sound—never too reverberant, though enough to create mood and sonic interest—and has the benefit of being performed on one of Koopman’s favorite instruments, his own excellent sounding Willem Kroensbergen harpsichord, after Ruckers.

February 2023

Koopman presents suites Nos 2, 3, 5, 7 and 8, recorded in his own home, whose analytically close acoustic makes textural clarity and precision a must. Crisp, often snappy articulation helps him achieve this with considerable deftness in fugal movements.

Handel: Five Great Suites For Harpsichord (London, 1720)

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