E. POWER BIGGS PLAYS HANDEL

The great English organist E. Power Biggs studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London but emigrated to the US, where he performed widely. From 1942 to 1958 he broadcast a weekly radio program that brought the sound of organ music, particularly that of the Baroque, to an unprecedentedly large audience. For American Columbia he recorded a wide repertoire (even extending to Scott Joplin rags on the pedal harpsichord), but with a firm emphasis on Bach. Another celebrated Biggs project was his recording of the 16 Organ Concertos of Handel with the London Philharmonic under Sir Adrian Boult, performed on a 1749 organ at Great Packington, Warwickshire, which the composer himself frequently played. This new 4-CD Masters box also contains Biggs’s recordings of transcriptions from Handel’s oratorios and operas.