I found Ryo Terakado's recent recording of Leclair sonatas (11/94) musicainly but marred by suspect intonation. This disc of Handel sonatas was, it seems, recorded at the same sessions but, oddly enough, troublesome tuning is here much less of a problem. I cannot suggest with any confidence why this might be so. There's no apparent reason why it should be easier to hit the right note in Handel's music than in Leclair's; perhaps it's just a case of more time having been taken over this particular recording.
Whatever the answer is, what we end up with is an enjoyable enough disc of Handel's sturdy music, intelligently performed. A total of nine violin sonatas has been attributed to Handel over the years, though only five of them seem likely to really be by him. This CD offers those five—one from his Op. 1 (HWV361) published set of assorted solo sonatas, four which sunive in manuscript—plus one of the doubtful ones, HWV372, which also appeared in Op. 1. Terakado plays them sensitively and with a good sense of style making no attempt to shock or find anything in the music that is not there. His tempos are well chosen and he shows suitable Handelian exuberance when he needs to. As before, he enjoys good support from his continuo players; Christophe Rousset is discreet yet rock-solid as ever on harpsichord while Hidemi Suzuki's cello provides a robust foundation in four of the sonatas, Kaori Uemura's viola da gamba a more gentle one in the remaining two.
Currently there is no other disc in the catalogue offering all of these sonatas together. The nearest thing to a rival is John Holloway's recording with fellow members of L'Ecole d'Orphee, of which there are two versions—all of the above works minus HWV372 on the two-disc analogue set and minus HWV368 as well on the single CD (10/92). In matters of style there is little to choose between them, but to my mind Terakado undoubtedly benefits from a more sympathetic (and digital) recorded sound.'