Händel: Die Acht Grossen Suiten

ECM New Series debut for Lisa Smirnova, playing Georg Friedrich Händel’s Eight Great Suites (1720), also known as “The Eight London Suites” or “Suites de Pièces pour le Clavecin”, major pieces in the keyboard literature, too rarely brought together on disc. The 1720 edition of suites (HWV 426-433), published by the composer himself, is amongst the most important collections of Handel’s early works. Handel’s early biographer John Mainwaring noted that the “fullness and activity of the inner parts” of these keyboard works ensures that “few persons are capable of doing them justice”. Smirnova who has worked extensively on the Eight Great Suites, rises comprehensively to the challenge, on the modern piano, in these recordings made at Schloss Goldegg in Austria.