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Handel - Six Concerti Grossi, Op. 3

Composer George Frideric Handel
Performer Van Diemen’s Band
Martin Gester, conductor
Period Baroque
Catalogue Number BIS-2079 SACD
EAN 7318599920795
Format SACD Hybrid

This hybrid disc plays on both CD and SACD players
SACD Surround - SACD Stereo - CD Stereo

Release date May 2021
Total time 62'20


The Van Diemen's Band's artistic director presents the recording (2 min.)

What we know as ‘Handel’s Opus 3’ is most likely little more than a brazen attempt by the London publisher John Walsh to make some quick money. In 1715, Walsh had issued a pirated edition of Corelli’s 12 Concerti Grossi Opus 6 which proved an instant success, and left him constantly looking for similar opportunities. &&&Almost 20 years later, perhaps in the knowledge that the royal protection granted to Handel’s musical output was about to expire, Walsh assembled a set of six orchestral pieces for a wide range of instruments. He prefaced them with a wholly misleading title-page – based on Corelli’s style-defining collection – and advertised them as Handel’s ‘Opera Terza’.

It is likely that Handel never took part in the selection and organisation of the individual movements, although he may have been involved in the revisions made when a reprint was necessary a few years later. Selected from various sources, the six concertos certainly don’t form an organic cycle – in complete contrast to the future Op. 6 concerti grossi, which Handel carefully conceived as a set. The fact remains that Opus 3 contains some of Handel’s best-loved music, in instrumental combinations that are colourful and often unexpected – aspects that Martin Gester and his musicians in the Tasmanian period band Van Diemen’s Band make the most of.
 
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  Concerto Grosso No. 2 in B flat major, HWV 313 11'52
01 I. Vivace 1'52
02 II. Largo 2'44
03 III. Allegro 2'22
04 IV. [Tempo di minuetto] 1'37
05 V. [Gavotte] 3'17
 
  Concerto Grosso No. 3 in G major, HWV 314 8'13
06 I. Largo e staccato 0'37
07 II. Allegro 2'46
08 III. Adagio 1'00
09 IV. Allegro 3'50
 
  Concerto Grosso No. 5 in D minor, HWV 316 9'54
10 I. [no tempo marking] 1'33
11 II. Allegro [ma non presto] 2'21
12 III. Adagio 1'32
13 IV. Allegro ma non troppo 1'41
14 V. Allegro 2'47
 
  Concerto Grosso No. 6 in D major, HWV 317 10'25
15 I. Vivace 2'43
16 II. Adagio 3'49
17 III. Allegro 3'53
 
  Concerto Grosso No. 4 in F major, HWV 315 12'16
18 I. Andante — Allegro — Lentamente 6'19
19 II. Andante 1'49
20 III. Allegro 1'35
21 IV. Minuetto a & b alternatim 2'33
 
  Concerto Grosso No. 1 in B flat major, HWV 312 8'19
22 I. Allegro 2'43
23 II. Largo 4'07
24 III. Allegro 1'29
 
  Album total 62'20
ConductorGester, Martin
Baroque orchestraVan Diemen’s Band
OrganGester, Martin

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