Handel: Organ Concertos, Op. 7 Nos. 1-6, HWV306-311 - CD

Handel's last great published set of instrumental concertos arrived posthumously in 1761. Played here on a chamber organ with real-time improvisations and enlarged continuo support, these magnificent concertos (including the beloved The Cuckoo and the Nightingale) show Handel at his glorious and compositional best, and allow a concentrated view of his style from the last 20 years of his life. Richard Egarr has worked with all types of keyboards and has performed repertoire ranging from 15th-century organ intabulations, to Dussek, Schumann and Chopin on early pianos, to Berg and Peter Maxwell Davies on modern piano. He is in great demand both as soloist and as accompanist for many of today's finest artists. As a conductor, Richard Egarr has presented a wide range of repertoire - from Baroque opera and oratorio to works by 20th -century composers. He is Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music, with whom he has recorded Bach Harpsichord Concertos and Brandenburg Concertos.Together they are currently releasing a series of Handel's Opp.1-7, of which the Solo Sonatas Op.1, the Concerti Grossi Op.3 and Organ Concertos Op.4 are already available.

Organ Goetze & Gwynn (1998) based on the chamber organs of Richard Bridge and Thomas Parker (recorded with the kind permission of the Handel House Museum) CD2, tracks 11-15: Four-stop chamber organ by Robin Jennings (2005); Harpsichord CD2, tracks 8-9: Malcolm Greenhalgh, 2005, after a 2-manual Franco-Flemish original; CD2, track 10: Joel Katzman, Amsterdam, 1991, after Ruckers, Antwerp, 1638

"Tachezi and Harnoncourt … wish to re-create the atmosphere of improvization which must have dominated these concertos in Handel's day … Tachezi is a will-o'-the-wisp, whose course one follows with some astonishment … such imagination … I am quite captivated by it". Gramophone

Scott Ross "Exemplary style … a fine set" Penguin Guide 2008