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Handel: Suites for Keyboard | 
| Creators: Georg Friederich Handel, Keith Jarrett
Label: ECM New Series
Category: Music
List Price: £14.99
Buy New: £12.69
You Save: £2.30 (15%)
New (18) Used (3) from £7.99
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 11311
Media: Audio CD
Running Time: 74
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 445298
UPC: 028944529821
EAN: 0028944529821
ASIN: B000025XCW
Release Date: October 2, 1995
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | Suite HWV 452, G Minor: Allemande | | • | Suite HWV 452, G Minor: Courante | | • | Suite HWV 452, G Minor: Sarabande | | • | Suite HWV 452, G Minor: Gigue | | • | Suite HWV 447, D Minor: Allemande | | • | Suite HWV 447, D Minor: Courante | | • | Suite HWV 447, D Minor: Sarabande | | • | Suite HWV 447, D Minor: Gigue | | • | Suites II: No. 7 HWV 440: Allemande | | • | Suites II: No. 7 HWV 440: Courante | | • | Suites II: No. 7 HWV 440: Sarabande | | • | Suites II: No. 7 HWV 440: Gigue | | • | Suites I: No. 8 HWV 433, F Minor: Prelude - Fuga | | • | Suites I: No. 8 HWV 433, F Minor: Allemande | | • | Suites I: No. 8 HWV 433, F Minor: Courante | | • | Suites I: No. 8 HWV 433, F Minor: Gigue | | • | Suites I: No. 2 HWV 427, F Major: Adagio | | • | Suites I: No. 2 HWV 427, F Major: Allegro | | • | Suites I: No. 2 HWV 427, F Major: Adagio | | • | Suites I: No. 2 HWV 427, F Major: Allegro | | • | Suites I: No. 4 HWV 429, E Minor: Fuga | | • | Suites I: No. 4 HWV 429, E Minor: Allemande | | • | Suites I: No. 4 HWV 429, E Minor: Courante | | • | Suites I: No. 4 HWV 429, E Minor: Sarabande | | • | Suites I: No. 4 HWV 429, E Minor: Gigue | | • | Suites I: No.I HWV 426, A Major: Prelude | | • | Suites I: No.I HWV 426, A Major: Allemande | | • | Suites I: No.I HWV 426, A Major: Courante | | • | Suites I: No.I HWV 426, A Major: Gigue |
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| Customer Reviews:
 Lovely Handel September 5, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
If you like your Bach on the piano rather than the harpsichord there are plenty of pianists to choose from, but when it comes to Handel on the piano the choice is much narrower. Handel's keyboard suites are, as the reviewer below points out, neglected gems and sound glorious on a concert grand though they are generally still played on the harpsichord if at all. With Jarrett I am always fascinated by the discrepancy between his frequently euphoric and ecstatic adventures in jazz (Ok, I am a fan!), and the respect, restraint and attention to the score that he brings to his classical performances. These are fine melodic performances and I personally prefer them to the much-garlanded Gavrilov/Richter sets on EMI - pianists whom I find too relentlessly aggressive in some of the closing gigues. If anything, though, Jarrett can be a little understated. He has an umimpeachable sense of line and of form, but I miss some of the colour and the greater expressiveness you find on Anne Queffelec's recent recordings for Mirare. Jarrett's is a very fine set indeed, mind, and the recorded sound is as excellent as one has come to expect from ECM.
 Supremely Great Handel Recording of the Suites by Omni-Genius Pianist September 7, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
There is no need to belabour the excellences of Keith Jarrett's performances of Handel's keyboard suites. The playing has the lyrical flow that other reviewers on North America's Amazon sites (Amazon.com and Amazon.ca) almost unanimously praise so lavishly and so rightly; even when Jarrett choses at times to play somewhat détaché, he never pokes, bangs, or thumps, as so many other keyboard players tend (whether on the piano or the harpsichord) to do. The phrasing of the music is so beautifully delineated that one simply would have to look long and far, indeed, to find the equal!
The way that Jarrett plays the suites in E minor and in A major alone would be worth the price of this disc, but the entire CD is a delight from beginning to end. However, in the other suites, there occasionally is all of that gentle reflectiveness that characterises his playing, in his own improvisational music and in classical repertoire alike, at the expense of the spritelier movements' humour and dash, the tempi at times just a tad too slow to maximise the brio of such sections, but all is forgiven for the sheer musicality and utter lack of pedantry of what one has to endure elsewhere in the performances of "early music specilists" or of some aggressive thwackers of Baroque keyboard music (especially in the music of Handel's contemporary, J.S. Bach) such as Weissenberg and (too much of the time) Gould.
The fugues in these suites simply surpass what praise can heap upon them. The fugue in the suite in E minor would be one of my prime choices to students of keyboard playing of how to execute a fugue or other work in strict counterpoint, with clarity and stylishness but also with a lyrical impetus that one seldom finds (usually, as others play, the impetus being at the expense of lyricism, or the lyricism at the expense of rhythmic articulation and forward motion) in players who fall short of Jarrett's combination of sensibility, elegance, taste, and sheer technical aplomb.
Well, one need not go further; read the other laudatory reviews and rest assured that the praise of the listeners who wrote them is utterly justified. Do not let any snide and crabbed musicologist or envious keyboard-tweaking "specialist" lure you with the inevitable and unjustifiedly negative comments of such unmusical riff-raff into underestimating the beauty, elegant style combined with expressivity, and the virtuosity that Keith Jarrett brings totally and so surpassingly well to the service of what the music as Handel conceived it was meant to convey and as Jarrett does so in these recorded performances of Handel's suites.
Overlooked Gems... March 3, 2002
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is the first of Jarret's Classical recordings that I have heard properly. By first impressions, I have been very impressed. He creates a great tone at the piano with a smooth, delicate touch.
As Jarret explains in his liner notes, the Handel keyboard suites are largely overlooked without good reason. This CD provides an excellent introduction to Handel's keyboard music. The suites are simple yet not simplistic, and in some ways are 'lighter' than some of Bach's work. They may not be highy complex, but they do require a competent pianist to do them justice, and for the most part Jarret succeeds. There were one or two ornaments that I felt could have been more smoothly executed, but this is only a small complaint to what is otherwise a very pleasing listen.
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