Allegro Moderato (Concerto Opus 4, No. 4)

The first movement of one of Handel’s most popular concertos gets transformed into an organ only work by the brilliant 19th century British performer, W. T. Best, creating a tour de force for the organ. This version also adds some final flourishes to Best’s cadenza by Virgil Fox.

W. T. Best’s transcription of the entire Handel Concerto is available free through IMSLP.

Perhaps some of my more “mature” organist friends will remember the album “Virgil Fox Encores.” I was exposed to this recording very early on and several pieces on it became favorites of mine. Ted Alan Worth, Virgil Fox’s student and quite a performer in his own right, also played this Handel/W. T. Best concerto movement regularly on his programs.

For this recording I have used the Hauptwerk sample set of the 1973 Marcussen and Son Main Organ in Laurenskerk, Rotterdam, Netherlands. This beautiful 85 stop pipe organ, bullt in 1973, unfortunately has no pistons or toe studs. Also, only one division is enclosed with only one celeste. Because this is a digital recreation of this instrument allowing unlimited stop controls (pistons and toe studs), Jacobus van Nieuwkoop was able to create an “extension” of the original Sonus Paradisi sample set with additional enhancements including increasing the number of enclosed divisions to three and adding two additional Celestes. The original keyboards have a range 56/30 and these were also extended to 61/32.