Paul Wolfe (harpsichord) G.F. Händel, keyboard music Volume I
Recorded at Stereo Sound Studios, N.Y.C. on Ampex stereophonic equipment by Jerry Newman.
Released 1958 label Experiences Anonymes, catalogue no : EA-0032 – US pressing, 1 disc : 33 1/3 rpm, stereo. ; 12 in

The harpsichord used for this recording was designed and built especially for Mr. Wolfe by Frank Rutkowski, Stony Creek,
Connecticut. It has two manuals (with a range of 5 octaves and “two notes) and seven pedals. Lower manual: 4′, 8′, 16′, and coupler. Upper manual: 8′, 8′ lule, and buff. The overall length is nine ‘feet.

Side 1: SUITE NO.3 in D MINOR (1733) HWV 428
00:00 Prelude: Handel begins his Third Suite with an improvisatory piece without any great thematic interest; a sweep up and down the keyboard to “play himself in” and arouse expectation in his hearers. A mountain must not bring forth a mouse and so Handel follows this impressive preludising with a virile four-part Fugue. The first six notes of the subject are identical with the first six notes of the Prelude. This is no mere coincidence: we shall find, in the course of going through the Suites, a number of such instances and much more marked ones, of thematic connections An episode in the middle of the Fugue consists of a delightful chain of sequences, first of all in the treble part, climbing upwards, with a light supporting bass, and thell with tile other parts making their contribution. There is no stretto but Handel makes a clinching allusion to the fugue subject three bars before the final
cadence.
04:16 Allemande: Johann Mattheson, a friend and colleague of Handel’s, declared that the Allemande, as the idealised piece of dance music it became in the Suites, “reflected a picture of a contented mind that delights in order and calm.” He added that “Allemandes to dance and Allemandes to play are as different as Heaven and Earth!” Handel’s Allemandes are among the most melodious movements in his Suites-the interest centers chiefly in the treble part-and beautifully show his power of phrase extension. He glides over cadence points where the music might well rest, ami carries us along in an unbroken flow of melody to the final point of repose. The last five bars, typically an uneven measure, that end the first section of this Allemande and, preeminently. the huge span of the last thirteen bars in the second section well demonstrate the point.
08:40 Courante: This is an Italian dance said to have been introduced into France by Catherine de Medici and brought to England during the reign of Elizabeth. Its character is well illustrated by a remark of Sir Toby Belch made to Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth-Night-“‘Why dost thou not go to church in a galliard, and come home in a coranto?” With his dinner in mind Sir Andrew went homewards more speedily than he had set out! Handel’s movement in this Suite combines the Italian characteristic of the dance, a few bars of running quavers (the name of the dance is derived from the Italian word ” running”) and the French characteristic, prevalent throughout, of dotted crochets and three quavers.
10:45 Air and Variations: The Air is almost suffocated in its decorative clothes but this seems to be a whimsical stroke on Handel’s
part. With Variation I we begin to “see” the melody, and in Variation 2 it emerges, in the treble part, I will not say unclothed but very simply clad indeed. The melody remains little changed in Variation 3 but acquires a delightful bass-a relief to the ear after the malo perpetuo bass in Variation 2. The time changes to 12/8 in Variation 4 to accommodate the groups of accompanimental quavers in each bar. The melody is in broken chords in the first section of Variation 5, then in treble and bass arpeggios responding to one another, the movement ending with a broad statement, arpeggio wise, of its last phrase.
00:00 Presto: This movement, in 3/8 time, clearly alludes in its opening bars to the theme of the Variations in the preceding movement but is not a variation on it. It takes the form of a ” refrain”-the stronigly marked melody harmonised in chords with which it begins and ends, and which is twice repeated (in A minor and F major) in its course-and the well contrasted “verse”, a lightly running legato melody over a ” walking” bass which succeeds it each time up to the close. Handel liked this movement so much that he used it as part of the Overture to the opera Pastor -Fido , and as the last movements of the Oboe Concerto, op. 3, No. 6 and Organ Concerto, op. 7, No.4.

Side 2:
25:23 SUlTE NO. 13 IN B FLAT MAJOR HVW 440
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande: A movement unique in the Suites in having an exact,
not a partial, recapitulation of its first section , as in the vocal da capo aria.
Gigue
33:33 SUITE NO. 11 IN D MINOR HVW 437
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande Variée
Gigue

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