The Handel organ concertos, Op. 4, HWV 289–294, are six organ concertos for chamber organ and orchestra composed by George Frideric Handel in London between 1735 and 1736 and published in 1738 by the printing company of John Walsh. Written as interludes in performances of oratorios in Covent Garden, they were the first works of their kind for this combination of instruments and served as a model for later composers.
My sister gave you an account of Mr. Handel's playing here for three hours together: I did wish for you, for no entertainment in music could exceed it, except his playing on the organ in Esther, where he performs a part in two concertos, that are the finest thing that I ever heard in my life.
— Mrs. Pendarves, 15 March 1735
When Handel first came to Italy ... he became known to Domenico Scarlatti. As he was an exquisite player on the harpsichord, the Cardinal [Ottoboni] was determined to bring him and Handel together for a trial of skill ... It has been said that some gave the preference to Scarlatti. However, when they came to the Organ there was not the least pretence for doubting to which of them it belonged ... Handel had an uncommon brilliancy and command of finger; but what distinguished him from all other players who possessed these same qualities, was that amazing fullness, force and energy, which he joined with them. And this observation may be applied with as much justice to his compositions as to his playing.
— John Mainwaring, Memoirs of the Life of the late G. F. Handel, 1760
One may say that Händel, in particular, is not easily surpassed by anyone in organ playing, unless it be by Bach in Leipzig.
J. Mattheson, Der Vollkommene Capellmeister, 1739
Handel's six organ concertos were published in 1738 by John Walsh as the composer's Opus 4. The four concertos HWV 290–293 had been written to be played in the intervals of performances of his oratorios Esther, Deborah and Athalia in March and April 1735 in the newly opened theatre of John Rich in Covent Garden; the other two concertos HWV 289 and 294 served the same purpose in February and March of the following year for performances at the same venue of Alexander's Feast HWV 75, Handel's setting of John Dryden's ode.
The performances of Esther and Deborah were revivals, while Athalia was a reworking for its first London performance of a work first heard in Oxford in the summer of 1733. The violinist Festing and the composer Arne reported to the musicologist Charles Burney that Handel had included organ solos in the Oxford performances: he had "opened the organ in such a manner as astonished every hearer" and "neither themselves, nor any one of their acquaintance, had ever before heard such extempore, or such premeditated playing, on that or any other instrument."[1]
Handel's prowess as an organist had already been demonstrated in Rome in 1707 in a contest with the composer Domenico Scarlatti, when his playing on the organ was rated higher than Scarlatti's playing on the harpsichord; his reputation as a great organist had already been established during his one-year position as cathedral organist in Halle in 1702. Handel's organ concertos thus have a special place in his oeuvre. They paved the way for Mozart and Beethoven, who like Handel achieved fame in their lifetimes as composers and performers of their own concertos.[2]
In the sinfonias of some of his cantatas, Johann Sebastian Bach had already introduced concerto movements for organ and orchestra. However, Bach's organs in both Weimar and Leipzig were large organs with double keyboards and pedals, powerful instruments that could only dominate a baroque orchestra. Bach's organ writing in the sinfonias lacks the complexity of his writing for solo organ; it is in two parts, as if for harpsichord, with the bass line doubling the continuo. The small English chamber organs at Handel's disposal, with a single keyboard and no pedals, produced a softer sound that could be properly integrated with a small orchestra, making possible a unique form of concerto close to chamber music.[3]
The precise reasons why Handel introduced this new musical form, the concerto for chamber organ and orchestra, have been discussed in detail by Cummings (2007). He concludes that Handel, faced by financial difficulties in mounting Italian opera, exacerbated by a newly established opera company in fierce competition for an audience, decided to showcase himself as a virtuoso composer-performer, thus providing a rival attraction to the celebrated castrato Farinelli, the glittering star of his competitors.
Handel had begun to introduce the chamber organ into his oratorios in 1732 in order to reinforce the voices in the chorus.[5] The oratorios Esther and Deborah include elaborate choruses drawn from his earlier Coronation Anthems. Deborah is scored for two harpsichords and two organs, one for each choir in the double chorus. Two solo arias in Deborah in which the organ doubles a solo transverse flute suggest organ-stops which could produce a soft timbre. Handel's instruments he used were most likely the single keyboard portable chamber organs with four stops constructed by John Snetzler, the leading organbuilder in London.
When Handel moved his company from the King's Theatre to the newly built theatre in Covent Garden, in autumn 1734, organs appeared explicitly for the first time in his operas. The danced prologue Terpischore HWV 8b performed there contains sumptuous scoring for alto recorders, violins, violas and pizzicato cellos with the bass and treble lines doubled by organs; Handel marked the score, "Les orgues doucement, e la Teorbe".
In March 1735 the London Daily Post and General Advertiser announced that Handel had decided to incorporate in later performances of Deborah "a large new Organ, which is remarkable for the Variety of Curious Stops, being a new Invention, and a great Improvement of that Instrument." Although the maker of that instrument or its successors remains unknown, the dynamic markings in the detailed organ parts for Alexander's Feast suggest a single manual organ with six stops rather than four. Whoever the organbuilder, Handel added a codicil to his will in 1757 bequeathing to John Rich his "Great Organ which stands at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden."[6]
In the 1730s London theatre audiences were constantly clamouring for novelty and displays of virtuosity on the musical stage. Handel's Italian opera company had to compete with the full range of spoken drama as well as popular musical entertainment, including English ballad operas such as the highly successful Beggar's Opera and the pantomimes and burlesques produced by John Rich. Between 1732 and 1733 the composer Thomas Arne with his son and John Frederick Lampe briefly ran an English opera company devoted to full-length operas in the English language. Of these entertainments, Italian opera demanded the highest expenditure and posed the highest risks.
Between 1733 and 1737 these financial difficulties were brought to a head by the establishment of a new rival Italian opera company, the Opera of the Nobility, set up ruthlessly to court Handel's potential audience. Formed by members of the disbanded Royal Academy of Music, to which Handel had previously belonged, it succeeded in poaching almost all of his principal singers, including the celebrated castrato Senesino and the bass singer Antonio Montagnana. Whereas Handel's company was supported by the king George II and his wife, the Opera of the Nobility had the patronage of their son Frederick, Prince of Wales, an open sign of deep-seated disagreements within the royal family.
It was during the second season of rivalry in 1734–1735, when competition between the two companies had become fiercest, that Handel first introduced his organ concertos. By that stage the Opera of the Nobility had assembled a star-studded cast which now additionally included the castrato Farinelli and the soprano Francesca Cuzzoni. Performances of Hasse's Venetian opera Artaserse played to packed houses and Farinelli became the toast of the town. Later in the season they even revived one of Handel's own operas Ottone, albeit in a heavily bowdlerised form, again with Farinelli as a guaranteed audience drawer. Artaserse and other operas including Porpora's new opera Polifemo, a precursor of Handel's pastoral masque Acis and Galatea, vied for the audience of Handel's three new works – the operas Ariodante and Alcina, part of the trilogy based on Ariosto's romantic epic Orlando Furioso, and the oratorio Athalia.[7]
Handel's opera company was obliged to leave the King's Theatre after the 1733–1734 season, because of a lack of support from former directors of the Royal Academy of Music. In July 1734 his company took up residency in the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden, opened two years previously by John Rich. Handel was engaged to give two performances every week, usually on Wednesday and Saturday, during the season. During the first season 1734–1735 there were three important features of the company's artistic activities:
All performances of the first season were advertised in the local newspapers as "By His Majesty's Command" or "By Her Majesty's Command" when the King was absent. The King and Queen attended a large number of performances, essentially snubbing the Opera of the Nobility supported by their son. In November and December 1734, Handel presented various opera revivals and a newly composed opera-ballet Terpsichore. However the combination of dance and opera seria was not sufficient to attract the opera going public. In January 1735 Ariodante opened, but, despite the quality of the music and a visible royal presence, was no more successful. It was in March that Handel started his first oratorio season, featuring the organ concertos HWV 290–293. The timing of the performances avoided conflicts with events in other London theatres and the local papers advertised the "new Concertos on the Organ." In spite of this his general popularity at that particular time was in such a state of decline, that even his organ concertos were "far from bringing him crowded audiences: tho' there were no publick Entertainments on those Evenings."
Handel fared better with his new opera Alcina which had an extended run, again with royal approval and attendance. There was, however, public disapproval of Marie Sallé's performance en travesti as Cupid in the ballet sections.[8]
Farinelli's impact on London opera-goers was without precedent: his singing gave rise to wild adulation verging on hysteria. Horace Walpole recorded that Lady Rich (1692–1773) expressed her rapture in 1735 with the words, "One God, One Farinelli." [9]
Handel had unsuccessfully attempted to hire Farinelli for his own company during a visit to Venice in 1729, so impressed was he by his brilliant castrato voice. In London Farinelli continued to pull the crowds to the Opera of the Nobility, despite Handel's insertions in his operas of dance interludes by Marie Sallé, the leader of the resident dance troupe at Covent Garden.
In early 1735 the first performances of Ariodante took place. The sequel Alcina was completed soon afterwards. At the same time Handel was preparing revised versions of his oratorios Esther and Athalia. During this period Handel prepared the 16 movements of the four organ concertos HWV 290–293, of which 10 are reworkings of previous compositions with the remaining 6 largely newly composed. HWV 292, completed in March 1735, contains the most new material, although even there the ritornello of the first movement is a borrowing from Act 1 of Alcina. It featured in the April performances of Athalia at Covent Garden. The other concertos were first heard in March, HWV 290 and 291 in Esther and HWV 293 in Deborah.[10]
Handel completed Alexander's Feast in January 1736. A choral work in two parts, it was a setting of the ode Alexander's Feast, or the Power of Musick by John Dryden. It was first performed at Covent Garden on 19 February 1736 as a celebration of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of Music. In its original form it contained three concertos: a concerto in B flat major in 3 movements for "Harp, Lute, Lyrichord and other Instruments" HWV 294 for performance after the recitative Timotheus, plac'd on high in Part I; a concerto grosso in C major in 4 movements for oboes, bassoon and strings, now known as the "Concerto in Alexander's Feast" HWV 318, performed between Parts I and II; and an organ concerto HWV 289 in G minor and major in 4 movements for chamber organ, oboes, bassoon and strings performed after the chorus Let old Timotheus yield the prize in Part II. There were 11 performances of the work in its first form: five in February and March 1736; and in 1737, 3 in March, 1 in early April and 2 in June. Meanwhile, he had produced Arminio and Giustino, completed Berenice, revived Partenope, and continued with Il Parnasso in Festa, Alexander's Feast, and the revised The Triumph of Time and Truth which premiered on March 23.[14]
I was nearly an hour with Handel yesterday ... he is in no danger upon the whole but I fear or am rather too certain that he will lose a great part of his execution so as to prevent his ever playing any more concertos on the organ.
Lord Shaftesbury, personal friend of Handel, 1737
In April Handel suffered a mild stroke, or rheumatic palsy, resulting in temporary paralysis in his right hand and arm. After brief signs of a recovery, he had a relapse in May, with an accompanying deterioration in his mental capacities. He had strong competition from John Frederick Lampe; The Dragon of Wantley was first performed at the Little Theatre in the Haymarket in London on May 16, 1737. It was a parody of the Italian opera seria. In Autumn 1737 the fatigued Handel reluctantly followed the advice of his physicians and went to take the cure in the spa towns of Royal Tunbridge Wells, Aix-la-Chapelle (Burtscheid) in September.[14] All the symptoms of his "disorder" vanished by November, although there were to be recurrences of the condition in 1743 and 1745.[15] On Christmas Eve Handel finished the score of Faramondo, but its composition was interrupted by that of the Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline. On Boxing Day he began the composition of Serse, the only comic opera that Handel ever wrote and worked with Elisabeth Duparc.
The harp and organ concerto (HWV 294) and Alexander's Feast were published in 1738 by John Walsh. Alexander's Feast was performed 25 times in Handel's lifetime and revised in 1739, 1742 and 1751, with the suppression of the two concertos Op. 4. For the final performances in 1753, Handel could not himself perform because of his failing eyesight. The Countess of Shaftesbury relates that she saw "the great though unhappy Handel, dejected, wan and dark, sitting by, not playing the harpsichord."[16] No one seems to have noticed hitherto that Handel's "borrowings" began in 1736 on a small scale, and became more frequent in 1737, after which they developed into a regular habit.[17]
| HWV | Opus | Key | Composed | Premiere | Published | Movements | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 289 | Op. 4, No. 1 | G minor / G major |
1735–1736 | 19 February 1736 | 1738 | Larghetto e staccato – Allegro – Adagio – Andante | First performed with "Alexander's Feast" (HWV 75) |
| 290 | Op. 4, No. 2 | B flat major | 1735 | 5 March 1735 | 1738 | A tempo ordinario e staccato – Allegro – Adagio e staccato – Allegro, ma non presto | First performed with the oratorio "Esther" (HWV 50b) |
| 291 | Op. 4, No. 3 | G minor | 1735 | 5 March 1735 | 1738 | Adagio – Allegro – Adagio –Allegro | Variant versions of last movement. First performed with the oratorio "Esther" (HWV 50b) |
| 292 | Op. 4, No. 4 | F major | 25 March 1735 | 1 April 1735 | 1738 | Allegro – Andante – Adagio – Allegro | Originally concluded with 'Alleluja' chorus (HG 20, p. 161), short instrumental ending probably written by Handel for Walsh publication. First performed with "Athalia" (HWV 52) |
| 293 | Op. 4, No. 5 | F major | 1735 | 26 March 1735 | 1738 | Larghetto – Allegro – Alla Siciliana – Presto | Performed with revival of "Deborah" (HWV 51) |
| 294 | Op. 4, No. 6 | B flat major | 1736 | 19 February 1736 | 1738 | Andante allegro – Larghetto – Allegro moderato | First performed with "Alexander's Feast" (HWV 75). Originally composed for harp, but later arranged for organ |
The concertos were first published in 1738 by John Walsh for solo keyboard, the solo part combined with a simplified reduction of the orchestral accompaniment. In the nineteenth century, W. T. Best, the Victorian Handelian champion and frequent performer at Crystal Palace, popularized a version for large solo two manual organ with pedals, with his own lengthy romantic candenzas. Subsequent scholarship and performance practice, however, has favoured the original intimate scoring for chamber organ and small baroque orchestra. In the 1940s the blind organist Helmut Walcha prepared a version for organ and second keyboard giving one possible ornamentation and extemporisitation of the organ part in the slow movements. Modern performing editions of Walsh's 1738 solo keyboard version and the original scoring for organ and orchestra have been prepared by the musicologists William Gudger and Terence Best.
The concertos have been recorded by multiple organists. Notable versions include:
