Suite No. 4 in E Minor

Handel’s Eight Great Suites for the harpsichord of 1720 would once have been played in every self-respecting musical household in the country. Handel made sure that in every suite, however challenging certain movements might be, there were always a few which would appeal to fledgling fingers. Indeed, much of Handel’s career in England revolved around his exploitation of the newly emerging middle classes—whose tastes he sought to form, and whose pockets he aspired to empty. Suite No. 4 in E Minor is a curious hybrid. It’s actually the only one of the eight with an unbroken sequence of the dances which made up the classic French suite: allemande-courante-sarabande-gigue. These relatively short, undemanding pieces Handel presumably intended for younger or more inexperienced players. But just to ensure that there was something of interest for more practiced hands, he slapped a long, tricky fugue on the opening. In performance, the dramatic tension set up by this discursive fugue is satisfyingly dispelled in the easy grace of the dances which follow.