Hyperion Records

Op 7 No 3 in B flat major was the last instrumental work Handel composed. It was written between 1 and 4 January 1751 and first performed after Act II of Alexander’s Feast at Covent Garden on 1 March that year at a concert which also included the premiere of The Choice of Hercules. After the first movement Handel simply wrote ‘Adagio e fuga ad libitum’ in the manuscript. On this disc the Adagio is a transcription of a movement from a G major Violin Sonata while the fugue is one of Handel’s few original organ solo works – the ‘Voluntary (or Fugue)’ in B flat from a set of six published in 1735.

from notes by Marc Rochester © 1997