Handel and His Keyboard Music

Handel’s solo keyboard music constituted a relatively small part of his output, although his harpsichord scores were disseminated more widely during his lifetime than the more numerous keyboard works of either Scarlatti or Bach. But Handel’s harpsichord music has since been overshadowed by that of his contemporaries.

Lisa Smirnova, a Moscow-born pianist living in Vienna, was unfamiliar with Handel’s Keyboard Suites when she first heard two movements in 2000. She was so captivated that she immediately familiarized herself with the entire set, known as the “Eight Great Suites” and published in 1720, and went on to record them for ECM.

Ms. Smirnova joyfully communicates her passion for these works and makes a vibrant case for the music to be performed on the modern piano.

The Handel biographer Charles Burney described the suites as combining “the profundity and learned art of the Germans with Italian grace and lightness.” All those elements are vividly realized in Ms. Smirnova’s imaginative interpretations, conveyed with a dexterous technique, colorful phrasing and lithe touch.

Handel referred to the suites with the English term “lessons,” signifying their suitability for domestic use and possibly as pedagogical material. While many of the movements are based on traditional Baroque dance styles, only in the Suite No. 4 does Handel adhere to the typical structure of allemande, courante, sarabande and gigue.

The Baroque tradition of improvisation is integral to these suites and Ms. Smirnova makes it particularly vivid in the Prelude of Suite No. 1 in A, for example, which she performs with soulful flair. Her sparkling passagework, vivid in places like the Allegro from the Suite No. 7 in G minor, enlivens all the outer movements.

While Handel’s keyboard music might not reach the profundity of Bach’s, there is emotional depth in Ms. Smirnova’s renditions of the various movements, by turns elegant, witty and melancholy.