Handel Minuets For Keyboard

Himself a virtuoso keyboard player, Handel wrote not only difficult music for his instrument but also a considerable number of easy pieces from various stages in his career.

Handel's Minuets for Keyboard, HWV A15, are elegant pieces crafted for the keyboard. Composed during his years in London, this music reflects the popular dance form of the minuet, characterized by a 3/4 time signature, a structure typical of dance music in the Baroque era.

Although George Frideric Handel is thought of as the quintessential “English” composer, we should not forget that he was born in Halle, Germany and had a similar upbringing to such contemporaries as Georg Philipp Telemann and Johann Sebastian Bach, among others. His teacher from 1692 was Friedrich Wilhelm Zachau, organist at the Marktkirche, Halle. When Zachau died in 1712, Bach was approached to become his successor in Halle, a position he declined even though a contract had been drawn up and needed only his signature. At that time Handel was well traveled and far from Halle, having spent some years in Hamburg, where he was active in the opera, then more years based in Rome, and by 1712 had already been in London for two years. Thus Handel’s career, and the music he composed, was somewhat different from that of Bach and his contemporaries in Germany. But despite the differences, the roots were the same, and Handel maintained his contacts in Germany and was fully aware of the music being performed there.

Here is a side of Handel unfamiliar even to those knowledgeable about his music. Most of this CD is devoted to miscellaneous songs in English‚ many of them published in his time on song sheets‚ or in journals‚ or given to friends‚ or intended for use in the theatre. They are‚ generally‚ in a more popular vein than his familiar music‚ and often in the style used by such composers as Arne or Boyce‚ or lesser men‚ in their English songs. The best of them‚ to my taste‚ are the theatre songs: ‘I like the amorous youth’ is a specially charming piece‚ and ‘Love’s but the frailty of the mind’‚ a Congreve setting made for the admired actress­singer Kitty Clive‚ is an exquisite and touching little song‚ especially when sung as beautifully as it is here by Emma Kirkby.

Born in 1660 into a family of peasant farmers, Johann Joseph Fux died in 1741 as Kapellmeister at the Habsburg court in Vienna, a prestigious post that he had held for almost 30 years: an extraordinary rise in fortune and testament to both considerable gifts as a musician and, self-evidently, an inclination towards hard work and self-improvement.