Concerto Grosso No. 2 in F Major

Handel conceived his second Op. 6 concerto as a work in six movements, but ditched two of them in favour of the four-movement form of the sonata da chiesa or “church sonata”. He gives fresh life to this antiquated structure with his richly inventive writing for soloists and orchestra, setting the bar high with the first movement’s noble opening melody and exquisite lines for solo violins and cello. The slow transition into the second movement underlines the gravity of what has gone before, while serving as launchpad for an “Allegro” in D minor, charged with solo display and bold orchestral interjections. Handel plays with two contrasting moods in the third movement, offsetting the weighty chords and chirping solo fiddles of its opening “Adagio” with a more lyrical passage marked “Larghetto andante e piano”. He repeats both sections, extending the latter to reach a final cadence that seems to ask, “What next?” Handel answers with a rousing fugue, but interrupts its progress with wistful chords from the solo trio, a pattern repeated until the soloists follow the orchestra’s fugal melody towards a reassuring final cadence. About Handel's Concerti Grossi Handel’s Concerti Grossi Op. 6, composed in the fall of 1739 for performance during the intervals of his forthcoming London theatre season, packs a dazzling variety of musical styles into the individual movements of a dozen works for string orchestra, with or without solo violins and continuo. The set’s title translates as “Grand Concertos”, which is how they were first billed in print. Handel became captivated by the concerto grosso in 1707 soon after his arrival in Rome, where it had been popularised by Arcangelo Corelli. His Op. 6 collection raises Corelli’s multi-movement form to perfection, exploiting the dramatic and tonal contrasts between solo or concertino and orchestral or ripieno groups with compelling ingenuity and panache.