Fitzwilliam Sonatas - History

History

The two sonatas used by Dart for his edition were probably written between 1724 and 1726, but were not likely intended to be associated, either as a pair or together with the other four recorder sonatas by Handel. They were first associated in 1948, when Thurston Dart named them after the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge, where the autograph sources are kept. Said autographs were part of the bequest that founded the museum, made in 1816 by Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Viscount FitzWilliam (not related to the Earls Fitzwilliam), who had bought them at auction following the death of J.C. Smith the Younger (1712–95), from the portion of his collection remaining after a major gift to King George III.

In 1974 a new edition of three recorder sonatas under the same name was made by the German musicologist Klaus Hofmann. This edition restored the D minor sonata to its original seven-movement form, and added as no. 3 the Sonata in G Major, HWV 358, probably composed much earlier than the other two Fitzwilliam recorder sonatas, at some time between 1707 and 1710. Even with correction of an evidently defective, very high passage at the end of the third movement, Hofmann admits that "Handel must have been counting on a superlative instrumental soloist", and suggests that "perhaps an instrument in g' ought also to be kept in mind" (as opposed to the usual alto recorder in f'). The attribution of this sonata to the recorder is contested, however. Both David Lasocki and Terence Best assign it to the violin, whereas Jean-Claude Veilhan endorses Hofmann's view, and Winfried Michel acknowledges the possibility.

Two further Handel sonatas found in the Fitzwilliam manuscripts have been published under the "Fitzwilliam" rubric: the Sonata for Violin and Continuo in G Minor, HWV 364a, and the Sonata for Oboe and Continuo in B-flat major, HWV 357. In the autograph of the G minor violin sonata, Handel copied out the first bar a second time at the foot of the first page, with the solo part written an octave lower, in the alto clef and with the words "Per la Viola da Gamba". A realization of this version was first published in an edition by Thurston Dart in 1950.