Concerti Grossi, Opus 6, Nos. 1 -4

In the concert hall today, a concerto nearly always means a work of large dimensions in which one or more soloists are combined and contrasted with the orchestra. In the older sense of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos and the Concerti Grossi of Handel and the Italian composers, a similar idea appears of contrasting small with larger and less defined groups of players. In shape, however, the Concerto Grosso resembles rather the old overture or suite, with several component movements in succession. Even the word "Concerto" was understood in a number of senses - Bach, for instance, used it in place of "Overture" or "Sinfonia" to certain Church Cantatas and for an extended piece (the "Italian" Concerto) for harpsichord solo, while yet adopting the term for his essays in writing for a single soloist (or several) in his works in this form for solo violin, for keyboard, or for mixed soloists. The twelve concertos of Handel's Opus 6 were written with incredible speed in the autumn of 1739. The year was unfortunate in its musical circumstances; opera had collapsed, nothing seemed to provide enough profit to fill th gap, and the winter was so excessively cold that an ox was roasted whole in Lincoln's Inn Fields with unsavory effects on Handel's theatre there. Nevertheless, for Handel, who had his living to make out of music, it was not an infertile year, for it saw the production of Saul, Israel in Egypt, and the setting of Dryden's Ode for St. Cecilia's Day.