This second volume of pianist Matthias Kirschnereit’s splendid series of Handel organ concertos transcribed for the modern Steinway contains four works, Nos. 13-16. No. 13 is the famous “Cuckoo and the Nightingale”, so named after its deliciously imitative second-movement Allegro. It was originally played as the overture to the second part of Israel in Egypt, and it’s a pity that no one uses it there today since Part Two of the oratorio begins in the middle of nowhere with a recitative. Concerto No. 14 was played in connection with Alexander’s Feast, but shouldn’t be confused with the Concerto Grosso in C major that gets its name from that work.
The little D minor Concerto HWV 304 (No. 15) consists of two movements adapted from a flute sonata in the First Production of Telemann’s Musique de table, but you’d hardly ever know it, so different is the sound (never mind the solo part) of this orchestral version. Concerto No. 16 is another version of one of the Concerti a due cori (HWV 334). It has seven movements(!) plus an “organ ad lib” that, as usual, Handel felt no need to write down. Its rich wind scoring gives the music a particularly festive air, almost like one of the Water Music suites.
Handel’s music works extremely well on the modern piano. He really was the Richard Strauss of his era: there’s a sensual quality and delight in sheer color in all of Handel’s music, and the piano offers a shimmer to the sound and range of nuance that no instrument of the composer’s day could match. As with the first volume in this series, Kirschnereit plays with taste, spontaneity, virtuosity, and joy. He’s accompanied with similar aplomb by Lavard Skou Larsen and his enthusiastic ensemble. The sonics are perfectly balanced and warmly sonorous.
Let’s face it: performances of these pieces on creaky baroque organs or reproductions thereof are a dicey business. This disc, on the other hand, never fails to deliver the goods.
