Organ and Orchestra

After my annual Albert Coates post which included a couple of Handel organ concerto sides, I received some feedback prompting me to transfer some other 78rpm sides for organ and orchestra.

The first has Sir Hamilton Harty conducting his own arrangement for organ and orchestra of movements from Handel’s Concerto in D major, HWV 335a (Concerto a due cori). Some of this concerto was reworked as the overture to the music for the Royal Fireworks. The organist here is Harold Dawber. The original concerto has 3 movements – Largo, Allegro, Allegro ma non troppo. As recorded here the Harty version uses the 1st and 3rd movements as for the first side, then the second side has an abbreviated version of the first first movement directly linked to the second movement. According to the biography of Harty by Jeremy Dibble, Harty’s arrangement also included a Grazioso movement between the two sides recorded here. The arrangement was first performed at a Hallé concert on 25th January 1923 with Harold Dawber. The score was published in 1934, the year of this recording.

Handel-Harty – Concerto for Organ with Orchestra – Dawber, Harty

Columbia LX 341
Matrices CAX 7112-1, 7113-1
Recorded 12th March 1934, Kingsway Hall, London
Released November 1934
London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Hamilton Harty
Harold Dawber, organ

The next recording has a pair of Handel organ concertos in their original scoring with the solo part played by Dr G.D. Cunningham, with George Weldon conducting the City of Birmingham Orchestra.
The two concertos are here transferred from the best parts of a complete auto-coupled set, and the first and last discs of a manual-coupled set.

Handel – Organ Concerto No.2 in B flat major – Cunningham, Weldon

Handel – Organ Concerto No.4 in F major – Cunningham, Weldon

Columbia DX 8272-4 / DX 1358-60
Matrices CAX 9305-2, 9310-2, 9311-2, 9312-2, 9313-2, 9314-3
Recorded 4th June 1945, Birmingham Town Hall
City of Birmingham Orchestra, George Weldon
Dr G.D.Cunningham, organ

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