Program Note: Handel’s Organ Concerto No. 13 in F Major

Posted June 10, 2025

Instrumentation: Organ solo, 2 oboes, strings

George Frideric Handel

(Born in Halle, Germany in 1685; died in London in 1759)

Organ Concerto Op. 4, No. 13 in F Major, “The Cuckoo and the Nightingale,” HWV 295

1. Larghetto
2. Allegro
3. Larghetto
4. Allegro

Handel had few rivals as a composer of beautiful themes and works of exceptional invention, and this Concerto was written to show off his abilities as both organist and composer.  It premiered in 1739 in London as a self-contained interlude to be played between the first and second acts of his oratorio, Israel in Egypt.  Handel eventually wrote many of these “Oratorio-concerti” interludes, mainly to attract audiences to the theater,  and as he grew older he increasingly improvised during these organ concerti.  As a genre, these theatrical concerti were constrained to the smaller organs that his main theater venue offered (i.e.; with only a few registers and no bass pedals) and to the small chamber orchestras accompanying the oratorio.  As a result, their organ virtuosity is more delicate than bombastic.

The opening Larghetto begins with a slow melody in the strings and oboes, almost a lament, yet with a gentle lyricism.  The solo organ enters and this beautiful movement intertwines the orchestra and soloist with traded phrases and merging melodies.  The second movement is a bright Allegro and again features call-and-response music making until at about one minute, when the organ begins to humorously mimic a cuckoo bird, and then almost a minute later, it begins a warbling motive that sings like a nightingale – hence, this Concerto’s nickname.  The two “birds” enter then into an utterly delightful duet.  Typically, at the end of this movement, the soloist is directed to “ad libitum” (improvise) into the next movement.

The slow third movement, Larghetto, is heart melting.  Only the strings and organ perform this movement in an extended duet of melancholic beauty.  The final movement, Allegro, is crisp and frisky, and again features conversational-like trade-offs between the organist and the orchestra.  The solo organ is given two special moments to shine – at about one minute and then at about two-and-a-half minutes – where virtuosic finger work is demanded, leading finally to a forthright and joyful ending.

© Max Derrickson