Search - George Frideric Handel, Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter, Andrei Gavrilov :: Handel: Keyboard Suites II; Beethoven: Piano Sonata, Op. 31, No. 2

Ever fresh and delightful music from the Great Mr Handel.

John Austin | Kangaroo Ground, Australia | 06/06/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If Handel's vocal music is back in favour at present, then his many keyboard suites also have claims for the attention of modern audiences. Personally, I don't welcome a chance to listen to the ways Handel contrived to set two lines of a foreign language to six minutes of music. I delight in listening, however, to how he develops and extends the classic suite items - allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue, adding sometimes other items, and sometimes - and in the Second Suite - omitting all the classic movements. It is not be understood, mind you, that Handel planned and plotted each suite as a whole entity. Almost all of them are gatherings of pieces dating from his early composing years. He published the first eight suites when he was aged 35.Pianists Sviatoslav Richter and Andrei Gavrilov shared live performances of all of them at a series of concerts given at the Tours Festival, France in 1979. Happily the recordings that derive from these performances are eminently successful, with little or no audible coughing and a life-like if sometimes fierce piano tone. Both pianists "voice" the linear part writing colourfully, in ways not possible when a harpsichord is used. Repeats are observed throughout. Making a belated and rosette-winning appearance on CD, these performances are conveniently spread across two double CD sets. Included in the second set, as a bonus, is a Richter performance good for all time if ever there was one - his 1961 Abbey Road Studio recording of Beethoven's "Tempest" Sonata."