Martin Haselböck, Jeremy Joseph, Orchester Wiener Akademie
Handel is best known to the wider public for his large-scale choral and orchestral works, but his organ music is equally precious. It was the Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels who, diverting him from a career in the law, spotted his exceptional abilities on the instrument. By the age of seventeen, Handel was already the resident organist at the Domkirche in Halle, and he was later to defeat Domenico Scarlatti in a contest of virtuosity during his time in Rome. Martin Haselböck and the Orchester Wiener Akademie have recorded the Organ Concertos opp.4 and 7 in the prestigious Vienna Musikverein, world-famous for its acoustics. Haselböck plays on the hall’s imposing Rieger organ in what is one of its very first recordings. Inaugurated in 2011, it is the fourth organ in the Musikverein since the hall opened in 1870. With its considerable dimensions – much larger than the organs Handel used to play on – the instrument offers a tonal palette rich in contrasts.
there is plenty to enjoy here, with just tempos, mainly crisp articulation and a thoughtful approach to style.
Organist/conductor Martin Haselböck, in the event, brings us here very human and seductive performances, ceding the organ part to Jeremy Joseph in the second set of concertos. The acoustic of the Musikverein is beautifully captured, the organ timbre bright but smooth, and when Handel sets his recorders up to burr like bagpipes and soar, the long arching lines are unsurpassed.
Soloist duties are shared between Haselböck (Op 4) and his former pupil Jeremy Joseph (Op 7), and of the two it is Joseph who seems more able to extract clarity, bounce and joy from the great machine…if for some this might not seem the stuff of a definitive recording, it is certainly fun to listen to.
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