HANDEL: KEYBOARD SUITES NOS. 1, 6, 7,...

HANDEL: KEYBOARD SUITES NOS. 1, 6, 7, 10, 11. Andrei Gavrilov, piano. Angel AM-34756. Perhaps the Soviet emigre pianist would play these suites differently today from the way he performed them live in 1979 at France’s Fete de Touraine in a complete cycle of the suites (Gavrilov split the 16 with Sviatoslav Richter, whose fascinatingly wrong-headed contribution still awaits domestic release). This is fundamentally glazed Handel, with exaggerated tempos--generally slow), large servings of rubato, insufficiently delineated dance movements and only the haziest attempt to clarify Handel’s contrapuntal design.