Concerto for Organ No.13 in F major (HWV 295) (The Cuckoo and the Nightingale) (Full Score)

Handel Concerto for Organ No.13 in F major (HWV 295) (The Cuckoo and the Nightingale) (Full Score)

Handel composed the Organ Concerto in F major in 1739 having already written five such works since 1735, and played them himself to great applause in performances of the oratorios Esther, Deborah, Athalia and Alexander’s Feast.

At the end of the autograph score of HWV 295 Handel recorded the date of completion – 2nd April 1739, and it was probably this concerto that he played for the first time two days later at the premiere of Israel in Egypt.

Handel very often borrowed thematic material from his own works and from those of other composers.  In the second movement of HWV 295, to which the concerto owes its nickname “The Cuckoo and the Nightingale”, are themes from Giovanni Porta’s Numitore and Johann Kaspar Kerll’s Capriccio Cucu.

- Urtext of the Halle Handel Edition

- Full score and parts (BA4231) available for sale