George Frideric Handel grew up in a musical and music-loving family. His interest in, and talent for, music stirred very early, and it is thus no wonder that he already took part in domestic music-making as a little boy, playing the organ, the harpsichord or the violin. At the age for seven he played before Duke Johann Adolf of Saxony in Weissenfels; his father went there from time to time in his professional capacity, and took the boy so that he could hear the Saxon Court Orchestra under Krieger, and the Duke recommended that his talents should be fostered. At the age of only nine Handel began studying with F. W. Zachau, who gave him the most thorough grounding in all the historical and contemporary modes of writing.
The so-called oboe trios are reputed to date from this early period. Even though it has been stablished in the meantime that they were rewritten during the later years of Handel's life, it is still very probable that he did not altogether compose them anew, but merely revised the old trios of his childhood. The well-known episode with the flautist Weidemann also speaks for this; he showed these trios, which had come to England by devious means, to Handel, whereupon the composer, according to Burney's "Sketch of the Life of Handel", is reputed to have said: "I wrote like the devil in those days, especially for the oboe, which was my favourite instruments". (On the grounds of this sentence, Handel has been tied down to this "favourite instruments" again and again in recent times.)
However, these "VI Sonatas or Trios for two Hobays with a through Bass for the Harpsichord" cannot have been composed for two oboes, since the second part exceeds the compass of the oboe of that time, both downwards and upwards, in every single sonata. On closer examination it can be seen that all six trios are written for oboe, violin and basso continuo. The name "Oboe Trios" is, however, justified insofar as the leading role is indeed allotted to the oboe in all these works; it begins alone in all the movements. In the musical dialogue the violin has equally important things to say, it is true, but always repeating, as if in agreement and confirmation, what has gone before. These six trios are church sonatas, that is, without any dance movements, each with two pairs of Adagio-Allegro movements. The influence of both the French and the Italian style cannot be missed, although the form is purely Italian. The use of the oboe can already be traced back to French models. In the sonata played here, the dotted, overture character of the introductory Adagio and the gigue rhythm of the first Allegro are also a French influence; the Affettuoso and the second Allegro are purely Italian movements. Typically German is the predilection dor ostinato basses such as are hinted at in the insistent bass figure of the first and fourth movements.
The Trio Sonata for Recorder and Violin comes from the Op. 2 collection that Handel had printed first by Witvogel in Amsterdam in 1731 and then later by Walsh in London. Most of the works in this collection were not written only for this purpose; Handel had partly written them earlier as trio sonatas or as vocal works, partly incorporated them later into larger forms - oratories, instrumental concertos. In these trio sonatas the composer finds himself on the way to the solo sonata, or the duet with obligato accompaniment. One of the two solo parts is always given preferential treatment, and this to a far greater degree than in the trios for oboe and violin. It may be that this difference stems from Handel's technique of rearrangement: when the original version of one or another of these trios is a vocal work, one can see clearly how the vocal solo has gone into the leading part, while the second part has been composed additionally. The Sonata No. 5 has been allotted to the flute in the printed edition, but it is unquestionably intended for the recorder, since Handel always fully exploited the compass of wind and string instruments, especially downwards, whereas the flute part here never goes below f, the lowest note of the recorder. In this sonata the French style is even more clearly in evidence. With the exception of the second pair of movements, the two solo parts always enter together in thirds. The flute is the dominating solo instrument, the violin having above all an accompanying function. In the Larghetto for instance it alternates between accompaniment of the flute in thirds and filling up the harmony in the rhythm of the bass. A genuine dialogue does not arise, the flute alone carries on the musical speech. It is only a little different in the second movement, the short passages left over by the flute being divided between bass and violin soli. In the three remaining movements the two instruments are used in the same way, first in an Italian, fugato sense them, in the last movement, together in thirds thoughout.
The two following sonatas are classed in Chrysander's complete edition under Op. 2/1b and Op. 2/2, though they do not stem from the printed edition bearing this opus number, but from manuscript sources. The Sonata Op. 2/1b is indeed identical with the first sonata of the edition, though a whole tone lower. Since C minor is an extremely difficult key for the flute, this version is probably for the recorder, and the B minor version that has come down to us in manuscript and is played here for the flute. The downward compass also confirms this opinion. Coming from France, the flute was the fashionable instrument at the beginning of the 18th century, and it is clear that the use of this instrument alone gave the music a typically French sound. The French elements also predominate stylistically in the first, second and last movements, little short-bowed motifs, staccati, dotted rhythms, strict fugati; yet Italian elements too cannot be overlooked. Here the violin represents a dialogue partner of almost equal status. The intermingling of styles proceeds farthest in this sonata. Only the third movement is a genuine Italian aria with the flute as a predominant soloist. The form of the aria has here been carried through so far that there is even a prelude (as for orchestra), in wich the soloist must also collaborate. This movement naturally falls completely out of the picture as regards trio sonata composition.
The Sonata for Two Violins also comes from a manuscript source. In this sonata Handel continues the great tradition of the Italian trio sonata in a brilliant work that is absolutely pure in style. Handel had, after all, gone to Italy at the age of Twenty-two, after his first years of apprenticeship in Germany.
Since it was above all the French style and manner of playing that he had thoroughly mastered up till then, with his approach of a genius he must have been a rude shock to the Italian composers, for whom no other style than their own counted. Their music is turn must have also impressed and stimulated the young Handel, to whom it was completely new.
The meeting and music-making with Corelli in Rome undoubtedly made the greatest impression of all on Handel. Not only did he get to know the mode of writing of this great classic of Italian baroque music at fist hand, but Corelli also performed works by Handel with his widely famed orchestra. Here we find the stimuli that led to the Concerti grossi Op. 6 and Op. 3, and certainly also to many a trio sonata; this form is, after all, closely related to the concerto grosso, the 'concertino' consisting in Corelli as in Handel of two violins and continuo (or in the wind concertos of two wind instruments). These concertos are thus formally extended, concertante trio sonatas.
The Italian-concertante element is particularly clearly marked in the Trio Sonata for Two Violins played here. The two solo instruments really are equal in status as on the Corelli sonata, and the bass also has a part in the "concertizing", the 'contesting'. In this sonate the bizarre, brilliant mode of writing of the young Handel also shows itself particularly clearly. For instance, in the harmonically daring semiquaver figures that interrupt the calm flow of the opening. Andante again and again - or in the grandiose boild-up in the first Allegro which leads to nothing, in order to end the movement with a complex harmonic-chromatic knot that slowly unravels iteself. The third movement too, beginning quite innocently as a calm Italian Adagio, ends in complexities of harmony and part-writing and interrupted developments. The Finale is also worthy of such a work. Already the main motif is virtuoso in character, angular, bizarre. Here all three parts are used on an equal footing with and against each other. The three morifs; the bizarre semiquaver triads with the interspersed runs, the angular dotted rhythms and the long, sustained notes are heard in every possible combination.
In this trio sonata, indeed in the trio sonata altogether, a particularly personal and committed side of Handel can be discovered - an unaccustomed, unknown Handel.