Harpsichord Suites HWV 430-433 CD18

Abstract

If there is an archetypal Handel keyboard suite, it is the E major. Like most of the other suites, it is in four movements. And, like most of the other suites, those four movements are predominantly stylized dance movements preceded by a prelude. And, like most of the suites, it is a beautiful and beguiling work fully at the level of Bach's best keyboard suites. Unlike Handel's other suites, this work (published by the composer himself, in London, in 1720) is frequently performed. Or, more specifically, its last movement is still frequently performed: as lovely as the graceful opening prelude, the fine-boned Andantino Allemande, and the porcelain-skinned Allegro Courante, the closing Air con variazioni is what guarantees the Suite in E major immortality. Obliquely based on the English folk song "Four Days Drunk," but far better known by its title The Harmonious Blacksmith, the air and five variations is quintessential Handel: sturdy and supple, elegant and powerful, lyrical but virtuosic. It also features the only movement in Handel with the compound time signature 24/16 against common time. Although he was a music composer not a music publisher, Handel undertook to issue his first volume of keyboard suites himself in London in 1720. He did so because as he wrote in the preface, "surrepticious [sic] and incorrect Copies of them had got Abroad" or, to put it more bluntly, Jeanne Roger of Amsterdam had pirated the scores and was making money off of them without paying Handel any royalties. Many of the suites were intended to be didactic pieces, teaching students keyboard technique while amusing them with cheerful melodies and pleasant harmonies. The Suite in F sharp minor is not one of those suites. Rather, it is a darkly tragic piece in four intense movements: an opening Prelude of enormous range and power, a brooding Largo in triple-time with huge chords and demonic trills, and a gigantic Fuga marked Allegro that simply starts with a descending theme but adds voice after voice of counterpoint to culminate in a stark Adagio cadence in seven voices. The closing Gigue, marked Presto, twists and winds through tightly argued modulations to a final, bleak cadence.