Van Diemens Band/Gester - Geroge Frideric Handel: 6 Concerti Grossi

What we know as �Handel�s Opus 3� is most likely little more than a brazen attempt by the London publisher John Walsh to make some quick money. In 1715, Walsh had issued a pirated edition of Corelli�s 12 Concerti Grossi Opus 6 which proved an instant success, and left him constantly looking for similar opportunities. Almost 20 years later, perhaps in the knowledge that the royal protection granted to Handel�s musical output was about to expire, Walsh assembled a set of six orchestral pieces for a wide range of instruments. He prefaced them with a wholly misleading title-page � based on Corelli�s style-defining collection � and advertised them as Handel�s �Opera Terza�. It is likely that Handel never took part in the selection and organisation of the individual movements, although he may have been involved in the revisions made when a reprint was necessary a few years later. Selected from various sources, the six concertos certainly don�t form an organic cycle � in complete contrast to the future Op. 6 concerti grossi, which Handel carefully conceived as a set. The fact remains that Opus 3 contains some of Handel�s best-loved music, in instrumental combinations that are colourful and often unexpected � aspects that Martin Gester and his musicians in the Tasmanian period band Van Diemen�s Band make the most of.