Francesco Corti - Handel: Winged Hands - Gramophone

The result is like a compendium of baroque harpsichord stylings, from urbane dance forms to dazzling variation sets, contrapuntal explorations to sweetly turned aria melodies, and public-facing ‘orchestral’ overtures to improvisatory preludes intimate with the keyboard. But it is also a showcase of the range and effectiveness of Corti’s responses to them. He shows a fantastic brilliance of hand, revealed not just in the virtuoso passagework but also in things like the whip-crack of the full-handed dotted-rhythm chords in the Ouverture of No 7, and he can switch to simple elegance and refinement for French-style allemandes and courantes. Undoubtedly, though, it is his ornamentation that will catch the ear. Bravura stuff from a harpsichord magician.