Händel, Claviorganum concerto, The Cuckoo & Nightingale // Musica Gloria

Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759)
Organ concerto "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale" in F major, HWV 295

Musica Gloria
Beniamino Paganini & Nele Vertommen

Beniamino Paganini - claviorganum
Nele Vertommen - oboe
Daria Spiridonova & Elise Dupont - violin
Lena Rademann - viola
Evan Buttar - cello
Giulio Quirici - theorbo
Markus Harder-Völkmann - nightingale register

0:00 Larghetto
2:04 Allegro
5:41 Organo ad libitum
6:05 Larghetto
9:07 Allegro

Martin Rust - Sound engineer
Martin Rust & Beniamino Paganini - Sound editing
Fabien DeLathauwer - Film

CD: Encounters in Rome - Corelli & Händel - oboe, strings & claviorganum
Etcetera - KTC1787

Claviorganum, Markus Harder-Völlkmann (2002)
- Organ with Gedackt 8’, Flute 4’ & Principal 8’ (treble only), in Italian baroque tradition
- Harpsichord with Principal 8’ & Nasat 8’, after Aelpidio Gregori (1726)
- Separate nightingale register (2022), in 18th century tradition

About Händel and the claviorganum (from CD booklet):
Händel encountered a special instrument on his travels to Italy: the claviorganum, a keyboard instrument in which strings (harpsichord) and pipes (organ) are combined within a single entity, enabling many combinations of timbres. [...] The English court and nobility had also been fond of claviorgana in the sixteenth century, but it is unclear how many of these instruments survived the period of the Commonwealth.
By the 1730s builders in England seem to have been experimenting with combination instruments again. With his many royal and noble connections, Handel was undoubtedly well informed about the state of organ and harpsichord building in England at the time. It is interesting therefore that when he chose an instrument to invest the large sum of £500 him- self around 1730, he chose a design that was nearly unique. The claviorganum that was built for the Covent Garden theatre had a long-ac- tion, allowing him to direct the orchestra from a harpsichord that was connected to an organ behind the orchestra. Peter Holman has extensively explored Händel’s use of this claviorganum both for his oratorios, but perhaps more significantly in performances of organ concertos – a practice that continued after the composer’s eyesight had deteriorated beyond the point of being able to direct large vocal works. [...]
Dr. Eleanor Smith

https://musicagloria.com/en/about-mus...

Many thanks to Vlaanderen, state of the art, Stad Leuven and Sonett