Zapomniane dzieła organowe Händla
Forgotten Organ Works by G.F. Handel

Summary/Abstract: The first Handel’s biographer, John Mainwaring, maintained that ‘his [Handel’s] chief practice, and greatest mastery was on the organ and harpsichord’. Johannes Mattheson stated that ‘probably only Bach himself in Leipzig can catch up with Handel in his playing the organ’. However, nowadays Handel is perceived chielfy as a theatrical icon, immortal creator of operas and oratorios. How can one explain the state of affairs then? Quite a number of organ works by Handel has sunk into oblivion, and only his famous organ concertos Op. 4 and 7 have remained core repertoire items. The organ versions of Handel’s overtures to his operas and oratorios which were so much popular erstwhile have completely disappeared from a present organ repertoire. Those sixty-four works that were published in numerous partial editions by his publisher in London, John Walsh, at the end of the composer’s life came out in a complete edition which was to become the largest collection of the 18th century keyboard music. Although it seems to be quite incredible, at present the works are not included in the lists of Handel’s works (if only with a note about doubtful authorship), performed in concerts, nor are they taken into consideration by musicologists, as if they did not exist at all. The organ overtures by Handel fully deserve to be performed again in the concert halls. They are not only an amazing document of the epoch, reflecting the practice of keyboard transcriptions which were so common in the baroque, but they also add to variety and significance of a repertoire in which Handel is shown as a peerless organ virtouso and, at the same time, the king of a drama theatre.

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