PentaTone Releases Daniel Chorzempa Playing Handel's Organ Concertos ñ Volume 3 Accompanied By Concerto Amsterdam Under The Direction Of Jaap Schroder

12-Jun-03

This is a new release in PentaToneís series of Remastered Quadro Recordings. A series that presents Philips Classics RQR recordings from the 1970s in hybrid SACD format. Thus far, PentaTone has released Handelís organ concertos 1 & 2 and plans to release Volume 4 at a later date. The four volumes together will represent Handelís entire organ concerto catalogue.A New Genre Sees The Light Of Day In The World Of MusicNo organ concertos without oratorios! To exaggerate somewhat, Handelís organ concertos owe their existence to this simple formula. What can justify this statement? Subsequent to his physical and mental breakdown in 1737, Handel turned almost exclusively to the composition of oratorios. In order to offer his audiences something new, Handel added improvisations on the organ. Thus a new genre saw the light of day in the musical. The great success of these innovative interludes induced Handel to regularly include organ concertos in his oratorio performances from 1735 onwards.A total of 16 organ concertos have been collected in three editions published by John Walsh. In general, the orchestral parts are written for oboes, strings and basso continuo.The ìthird setî of the ìConcertos for the Harpsichord or Organî Op. 7, were published in London only after Handelís death. Apparently, Handel had also planned to integrate these works into his oratorios some day. In this Opus 7, he used predominantly musical material stemming from earlier works, either by himself or by other composers, as is the case for example in the Fugue of the Concerto No. 1 in B-flat, which is based on the second movement of the Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 11, or in the Adagio of the Concerto No. 3 in B-flat, which is based on the violin Sonata Op. 1, No. 10. The Concerto No. 3 in B-flat, his last instrumental work before he became blind, opens with clear echoes of the powerful ìHallelujahî chorus from the Messiah.Although the new SACD standard allows for five channels plus a subwoofer channel, these early recordings reissued in the RQR series are being released in their original four-channel version. Itís PentaToneís way of doing justice to the original intentions of both artists and recording technicians, and presenting their work in the best possible context with the help of 21st century technology.