Handel - Trio Sonata in G minor Op. 2 | 5

The sonata here presented in a separate publication is taken from the new edition of nine trio sonatas published in the Halle Handel Edition. This volume contains the six sonatas of Handel’s op 2, first printed in1722, as well as three separate sonatas which survive only in manuscript and which were probably composed at about the same time or perhaps somewhat later. Even if they possess at most a rather modest significance when seen in the context of Handel’s complete works (compared for example with the oratorios, operas and concerti grossi), they are to be counted among Handel’s most valuable contributions to the instrumental chamber music of his time.

As a guide for performance it will be enough to refer here to the considerable freedom in instrumentation characteristic of the work’s date of composition.

The top voice can be taken by violin, transverse flute, oboe or, as far as is practicable, by recorder too. String instruments alone, or woodwinds alone, or violin with a woodwind instrument, are all possible.