Classical Music | Ensemble Music

George Frideric Handel

Concerto Grosso in a minor Play Play

Ensemble

Recorded on 05/24/2007, uploaded on 09/24/2010

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Concerto Grosso in a minor George Frideric Handel

Larghetto Affettuoso, Allegro, Largo e piano, Allegro

Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel (we use this spelling in honor of Handel's being a naturalized British subject in his maturity) both made use of a synthesis of the French and the Italian styles—in fact, this synthesis is a characteristic of the Germans of the baroque era. Added to the native German musical language's innate richness of harmony and counterpoint, it literally defines the styles of these two giants of the late baroque.

In 1740, Handel published "Six Grand Concertos in 7 Parts, op. 6," of which we hear tonight the fourth in A Minor. While Handel used French dance types in his music for the theatre, in this concerto we hear mostly the legacy of Corelli, whom Handel had met and worked with when in Rome in the early years of the eighteenth century. The work was finished on the eighth of October of 1739 and was printed by subscription—the subscribers included members of the royal family and many prominent members of the English nobility. The concertos of op. 6 are considered to be among the finest of eighteenth-century ensemble music, on a par with the Brandenburg Concertos of Bach. Like the Brandenburgs, the concertos of op. 6 are so diverse in plan as to resist any pattern except that of extremely high quality. David Schrader