Not many pianists champion Handel’s keyboard suites, let alone record them cyclically. Yet Ragna Schirmer appears to be one of the very few to have essayed all 16 on disc. Happily, the dry, somewhat pedantic impression she made with Bach’s Goldberg Variations contrasts to her altogether warmer, more imaginative and involved Handel-playing. The music’s formal origins in dance are reflected via Schirmer’s well judged tempi (compare her crisp, animated Courante in No 8 to Keith Jarrett’s broader, more legato treatment), and are always propelled by assertive, shapely bass-lines. At the same time, improvisatory Preludes inspire plenty of unfettered yet stylishly apt rhapsodising. Schirmer is not averse to transposing certain repeated sections up an octave or to changing her articulation second time round, while embellishments manage to be both liberal and discreet. True, there’s something to be said for the mesmerising deliberation with which the more pianistically oriented Andrei Gavrilov and Sviatoslav Richter (EMI, 11/96) convey in slower movements, and lighter, suppler accounts of the Fifth Suite’s famous “Harmonious Blacksmith” variations grace the catalogue. Still, for overall artistry and excellent engineering, this is the Handel cycle to acquire if you desire these works on piano.