Handel Keyboard Suites

The Handel-Kempff Suite for Keyboard (Suite de piece) in G minor is Wilhelm Kempff's piano transcription of the wonderful Suite #13 (HWV 439) from George Frideric Handel's Keyboard Suites (Volume 1: HWV 426-433; and Volume 2: HWV 435-442), published in 1733.

George Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759) was a great German–English Baroque composer. Handel's compositions include 42 operas; 29 oratorios; more than 120 cantatas, trios, and duets; numerous arias; chamber music; a large number of ecumenical pieces; odes and serenatas; and 16 organ concerti. His oratorio Messiah, with its "Hallelujah" chorus, is among the most famous works of classical music and is often performed during the Christmas season. Among Handel's best-known instrumental works are the Concerti Grossi Opus 3 and Opus 6; The Cuckoo and the Nightingale; The Water Music; Music for the Royal Fireworks; and his sixteen keyboard suites, especially The Harmonious Blacksmith.

Wilhelm Kempff (1895 - 1991) was a German pianist and composer. His repertoire included music of J. S. Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, and Brahms. Particularly well known for his interpretations of the music of Beethoven and Schubert, Kempff recorded all of their piano sonatas. He is considered to have been one of the chief exponents of the Germanic tradition during the twentieth century, and one of the greatest pianists of all time.

A lesser-known activity of Kempff was composing. He composed for almost every genre and used his own cadenzas for Beethoven's Piano Concertos 1 - 4. His student Idil Biret has recorded a CD of his piano works. His second symphony premiered in 1929 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler. He also prepared piano transcriptions of music by Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel.