Overture

One of the delights with Handel's 12 Concerti Grossi is their unpredictability. The formal structure of most movements avoids anything that might be laid down in a textbook as a standard form, and similarly there is no regular number and order of movements within each concerto. It is, in fact, much better if the listener, at least the first time he or she plays the recording, does not read the list of movements but lets him(her-)self be surprised by the varied sequences of music.