Il Gardellino, Bart Naessens - Händel: Claviorganum Concertos & Sonatas (2021)
FLAC tracks / MP3 320 kbps | 1:14:32 | 395 / 170 Mb
Genre: Classical / Label: Passacaille
The claviorganum is not an instrument we hear much from these days, but versions of this cross between a harpsichord and an organ – which could be played individually or together, on one or two manuals – were by no means a rare sight in Europe between the 15th and 18th centuries, with Henry VIII owning several. What's more, it was no Frankenstein creation for mere curiosity's sake, but instead an eminently practical piece of problem-solving, because while the harpsichord is perfectly suited to fast, brilliant passagework, but can neither sustain long notes nor change tone or dynamic, the slightly-less-horizontally-nimble organ counts those latter deficiencies as its key strengths. As for why we haven't seen a resurgence of claviorganum sightings as period performance has gone mainstream, perhaps it's a combination of very few examples having survived in their original state, and the fact that composers of that period rarely specified on their manuscripts as to which keyboard instrument should be used.