Handel did not consider it necessary to work out the organ parts of his organ concertos in detail. After all, he was the intended soloist himself. These omissions are of course a nice invitation to current organists to let go of their imaginations. Probably, however, no one goes as far as Richard Egarr. Note, for example, the eccentric completion of the first Allegro of Concert No. 4, as if we were
… seeing the brusque Handel ('impetuous, rough and peremptory in his manners' according to Burney) sneering at the audience. Egarr's extravagances do work, however. As in the beautifully depicted bird song of 'The Cuckoo & The Nightingale'. It is a relief that Egarr has managed to separate himself from the academic Urtextausgabe in this flattened evergreen. Trade Organ Concerts op. 7 were his last collection of instrumental concertos. The concerts were published posthumously in 1761. (HJ)more
