Laurence Cummings - Handel: 8 Great Suites for Solo Harpsichord (HWV 426-433) (2014)

Recorded in collaboration with BBC Radio 3 and Handel House Museum in celebration of Handel’s 250th Anniversary.

The recording took place at 25 Brook Street, London W1 – now known as the Handel House Museum, which was home to George Frideric Handel from 1723 until his death in 1759. This landmark address is where he composed some of the greatest music in history including Messiah, Zadok the Priest and Music for the Royal Fireworks, and died on 14 April 1759. It is a special collaboration between BBC Radio 3 and Handel House Museum in Brook Street and we can do no better than quote the Introduction to the CD liner notes, as follows:-

“As part of the celebrations commemorating the 250th anniversary of Handel’s death BBC Radio 3 and the Handel House collaborated to produce this recording of Handel’s Great Harpsichord Suites. Handel composed these Suites before taking up residence at 25 Brook Street, now the Handel House, but it is likely that they were performed here many times. It was therefore, really rather wonderful to have been able to record these Suites in the very rooms where Handel himself would have played them; both for his own enjoyment and for the various audiences he regularly gathered in the first floor front parlour.