Sonnerie, Matthew Halls, Monica Huggett - Handel: Six Organ Concertos Op. 4 (2006)

Monica Huggett and her ensemble Sonnerie scored a hit on Avie with their recording of Handel's Trio Sonatas, Op. 2. They continue their traversal of Handel's chamber works with the Organ Concertos, Op. 4, featuring soloist Matthew Halls, a brilliant young soloist who spins out Handel's endlessly tuneful works with an improvisatory flair that the composer - himself a virtuoso organist - would surely have approved of. On this CD, he plays a replica of a Baroque style chamber organ, built by Jaap Fama and Henk Klop, and owned by the Dutch Bach Society.
This is one of the few disks I'll grab if the house is burning down, or if I'm banished to a desert island for being considered too antisocial in my little town because I prefer to hide away from the locals & listen to music such as this as much as I can!
Everything about this disk is simply beautiful - the superb choice of chamber organ, the unassuming virtuosity & total commitment of the performers (one player to each part resulting in an intimacy not heard on other recordings), & the magical sense that Handel himself could have breezed in to suggest ideal tempi & to give a thumbs-up to the imaginative ornamentation & cadenzas. Add to these qualities the excellent clarity of the recording, &, of course, the sheer gorgeousness of the concertos themselves, & you're in for a ravishing experience.