Concerti Grossi (pub . 1739)

                Handel's Concerti Grossi Op. 6 (or Twelve Grand Concertos) are 12 concerti 
        grossi for a concertino of two violins and a violincello (a cello) and a ripieno four-
        part string orchestra with harpsichord continuo.

                Taking the older concerto da chiesa and concerto da camera of Arcangelo Corelli
        as models, rather than the later three-movement Venetian concerto of Antonio Vivaldi 
        favored by Johann Sebastian Bach, they were written to be played during performances 

        of Handel's oratorios.  

                 Despite the conventional model, Handel incorporated in the movements the full 
        range of his compositional styles, including trio sonatas, operatic arias, French over- 
        tures, Italian sinfonias, airs, fugues, themes and variations and a variety of dances.  
        The concertos were largely composed of new material; they are amongst the finest 
         examples in the genre of baroque concerto grosso.


                                Concerto Grosso Op 6, No. 6 in G minor 

 

00:00     The first movement, marked Larghetto e affetuoso, is one of the darkest that 

              Handel wrote, with a tragic pathos that easily equals that of the finest dramatic 

              arias in his opera seria.  Although inspired by the model of Corelli, it is far more 

              developed and innovative in rhythm, harmony and musical texture.  There are brief 

              passages for solo strings which make expressive unembellished responses to the full 

              orchestra.  Despite momentary suggestions of modulations to the relative major 

              key, the music sinks back towards the prevailing melancholic mood of G minor; 

              at the sombre close, the strings descend to the lowest part of their register.

03:27 -  The second movement is a concise chromatic fugue, severe, angular and unrelenting, 

              showing none of Handel's usual tendency to depart from orthodoxy.

05:17 -  The elegiac movement in E flat major is the crowning glory of the concerto, Handel 

              would often perform it as a separate piece during oratorios.  In this highly original

              larghetto, Handel conjures up a long dreamy pastoral of some 163 bars.  It was 

              inspired by Georg Philipp Telemann's Harmonischer Gottes Dienst.

 

             The movement starts with a gravely beautiful main theme; Handel creates a unique 

              dark texture of lower register strings over a drone bass, the traditional accompaniment 

             for this dance, derived from the drone of the bagpipes.  This somber theme alternates 

             with contrasting spirited episodes on the higher strings.

             The movement divides into four parts: first a statement of the theme from the full 

             orchestra; then a continuation and extension of this material as a dialogue between 

             concertino and ripieno strings, with the typical dotted rhythms of the musette; then 

             a section for full orchestra in C minor with semiquaver passage-work for violins over 

            the rhythms of the original theme in the lower strings; and finally a shortened version 

            of the dialogue from the second section to conclude the work.

10:05 -  The following allegro is an energetic Italianate movement in the style of Vivaldi, 

              with ritornello passages alternating with the virtuoso violin solo.  It departs from 

              its model in freely intermingling the solo and tutti passages after a central 

              orchestral episode in D minor.

13:00 -  The final movement is a short dance-like allegro for full orchestra in 3/8 time and 
              binary form, reminiscent of the keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti.