1-4 Overture to the Occasional Oratorio
5-7 Overture to Athalia
8-9 Overture to Radamisto
10-13 Suite in A (HWV 454)
14-17 Overture to Samson
18-21 Overture to Saul
22-27 Suite in G (HWV 450)
28-30 Overture to Il Pastor Fido
31-34 Overture to Teseo
35-38 Overture to Rinaldo

Handel’s overtures had an independent life almost from their inception, and the practice of performing them on keyboard instruments has a similarly long pedigree, beginning with a number of transcriptions made by the composer himself. Keyboard specialist John Kitchen virtuosically evokes Handel’s orchestral palette in the welter of timbres and colours which he summons forth from Jacob Kirckman’s 1755 harpsichord, a classic instrument from the very apex of the English harpsichord-building tradition. Praise for John Kitchen on Delphian Records: ‘His playing is exemplary’ – Early Music Review, February 2009 ‘… crisp articulation, splendidly agile fingerwork and a strong sense of purpose’ – International Record Review, April 2009