Organ concertos, Op. 4 (Handel) had already been established during his one-year position as cathedral organist in Halle in 1702. Handel's organ concertos thus have a special place in his oeuvre. They paved the way for Mozart and Beethoven, who like Handel achieved fame in their lifetimes as composers and performers of their own concertos. In the sinfonias of some of his cantatas, Johann Sebastian Bach had already introduced concerto movements for organ and orchestra. However, Bach's organs in both Weimar and Leipzig were large organs with double keyboards and pedals, powerful instruments that could only dominate a baroque orchestra. Bach's organ writing in the
Organ concertos, Op. 4 (Handel) however, has favoured the original intimate scoring for chamber organ and small baroque orchestra. In the 1940s the blind organist Helmut Walcha prepared a version for organ and second keyboard giving one possible ornamentation and extemporisitation of the organ part in the slow movements. Modern performing editions of Walsh's 1738 solo keyboard version and the original scoring for organ and orchestra have been prepared by the musicologists William Gudger and Terence Best. Organ concertos, Op. 4 (Handel) The Handel organ concertos Op 4, HWV 289–294, are six organ concertos for chamber organ and orchestra composed by George Frideric Handel in