Suite No. 4 in D Minor

With Handel’s first volume of harpsichord music—the Eight Great Suites—having been a great success when it appeared in 1720, England’s amateur fingers had long been itching for more. Handel was acutely sensitive to the appetites of his growing middle-class audiences, and his second volume of harpsichord music was put together quickly to cash in on the immediate demand. Although published in 1733, many of the pieces had been hanging around for a long time before this: the Suite No. 4 in D Minor probably first saw light as early as 1703-6. In his late teens, Handel was learning about the French suite and put together the classic line-up of dances: allemande-courante-sarabande-gigue. The “Sarabande” is infused with the dance’s characteristic lilt, and Handel extends it with two contrasting variations—the second featuring a delightful running bass for the left hand. While everything, including the final scampering “Gigue,” fits neatly under the hands of the amateur, the music is above all elegant, refined, and exquisitely crafted.