New CD release: Handel's Eight Great Harpichord Suites recorded by Laurence Cummings at Handel House

This is the first time that a live CD recording of Handel's own music has been made at Handel House in addition to it being the first time that Handel's Eight Harpsichord Suites have been released as a double CD. Although Handel did not compose the Suites at 25 Brook Street, it is likely that he played them here many times for himself and his friends. The CD is a wonderful opportunity to be able to hear this intimate recording made in the very rooms where Handel lived and worked.

The CD will be released on Monday 15 March, and will be available from Handel House Museum priced at £15, as well as from all major music retailers. Proceeds from CDs purchased at Handel House will go towards supporting the Museum and its activities.

Laurence Cummings is one of Britain's most exciting and versatile exponents of historical performance both as a conductor and a harpsichord player. He is Director of the London Handel Orchestra and Head of Historical Performance at the Royal Academy of Music, London. 

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As part of the celebrations commemorating the 250th anniversary of Handel’s death BBC Radio 3 and
Handel House collaborated to produce this recording of Handel’s Great Harpsichord Suites. Handel
composed these Suites before taking up residence at 25 Brook Street, now Handel House, but it is
likely that they were performed here many times. It was therefore, really rather wonderful to have been
able to record these Suites in the very rooms where Handel himself would have played them; both for
his own enjoyment and for the various audiences he regularly gathered in the first floor front parlour.
The other defining element of this recording is Laurence Cummings’ invaluable commitment and
superlative playing. His close musical connection to Handel and to the building, as a trustee of the
Handel House, makes his performance particularly appropriate.

Edward Blakeman                   Sarah Bardwell
Editor, BBC Radio 3                Director, Handel House

Recording solo harpsichord in Handel House was always going to be a giant leap of faith! Would
we ever find a way of eradicating the very 21st-century hustle and bustle of Brook Street? Would we
find a sound that could capture the intimacy of our domestic surroundings and yet be of sufficient
quality? Above all, would we have the stamina to record through the night, the only time the museum
is closed to visitors? In the end it was the creak of the 18th-century floorboards that created the most
problems!

I cannot begin to describe how privileged I feel to perform the great Mr. Handel’s music in the
very house where he lived and died. This recording for me is the realisation of a long-held dream.

Laurence Cummings