The reasons for writing keyboard concertos in late eighteenth-century England were several. However, the origins of the genre in England lie specifically with the obbligato keyboard performances given in London theatres, and in concerts, by Handel and William Babel, which took place as early as the second decade of the century. Concert notices suggest that the solo parts of concerti grossi were adapted to form the earliest English keyboard concertos, as when Johann Christoph Bach (born 1676) performed ‘A Concerto Grosso, by Dr. Pepus[c]h, with Solo Parts for the Harpsicord’ at a benefit concert for the oboist Jean Christian Kytch on 16 April 1729 (see Introduction, xxiv–xxv). Organists who wrote concerti grossi also adapted and published them as organ concertos, including Handel, whose ‘Second Set’ (without opus number) consists predominantly of adaptations from his Twelve Grand Concertos, Op. 6. The precedent of publishing keyboard concertos was established by Handel, whose Op. 4 appeared in 1738. Since the genre in its earliest phase was inherently suited to the professional concert sphere, the publication of such works might well have had a limited market. In Handel's case at least, the composer also had to invest time to ensure that each concerto's notation was complete in all essential details: those that were not prepared in such a way were published posthumously as the ‘Third Set’, Op. 7, which contains numerous solo passages and slow movements, without any musical notation, marked ‘Organo ad libitum’. However, other composers, such as Charles Avison and John Stanley, were shortly to follow Handel's lead and publish sets of concertos of their own. The genre was thus established as one that would be taken up by many composers in England thereafter.

One factor that contributed to the popularity of Handel's organ concertos was the fact that the organ part contained all the musical material, making solo performance without accompaniment possible. Handel therefore set an important precedent for how published sets were best presented to the public, but his standards of virtuosity and quality were not going to be easily matched. As Peter Lynan observes in his Introduction, ‘Handel's concertos were an inevitable and considerable influence on British composers, many of whom attempted to replicate his style’, but most composers following him naturally sought alternative models and developed their own approach (xxv–xxvi). The generous selection of thirteen concertos in this edition, spanning a seventy-five-year period, amply demonstrates this fact. Included are ‘classics’, such as Stanley's Op. 10 No. 4, but the majority of the contents has not been published before. There are some inevitable omissions, in addition to the complete exclusion of works by foreign-born composers, but coverage in this large volume is commendably even overall. The edition illustrates the several types of concerto that were composed in England over the period, from those differing little from chamber sonatas with obbligato keyboard part to the full orchestral pieces of later date.

A problem with studying and editing eighteenth-century keyboard concertos is the frequent loss of orchestral parts. This edition draws attention to orchestral parts for a number of concertos that survive uniquely, or are found in libraries that are not readily accessible, some of which have not previously been taken into account by editors and scholars. Most of the concertos contained within the volume have partially or fully authentic orchestral parts, while in other cases these have had to be reconstructed to a greater or lesser extent – as is the case for the concertos by Chilcot, Rush and Hook. The authentic parts are particularly valuable for illustrating accompaniment practices that are not always evident from the keyboard part alone, one of which is the accompanying of the solo episodes by a solo string quartet or trio. This feature of the scoring mirrored the wider introduction of more substantial accompaniment in solo sections – beyond the use of Handelian antiphonal effects found in William Hayes's concerto (no. 3, dated 1755) – an element that became more elaborate as the century progressed. A genuine contrapuntal dialogue between soloist and accompaniment is a notable feature of Charles Wesley's E major concerto (no. 10, dated 1778). In earlier concertos, however, there is considerable quasi-obbligato passagework in the string parts additional to that in the keyboard part. Such passagework has a minimized function in the concerto by Philip Hayes (no. 6, published in 1769), to the point that the accompaniment could still be omitted in performance. However, in others it is more significant, as in Chilcot's concerto (no. 5, published in 1756), where the quartet plays accompanying figures that add considerably to the vitality of the texture (it is thus unfortunate that only two violin parts survive). A similar level of added vitality is provided by the trio of solo accompanying parts in Hook's concerto (no. 7, published in 1771), which include an obbligato cello in the tenor range. Lynan suggests that the orchestral parts for Hook's concerto are corrupt (366), citing the apparent oddity of the cello line as a reason. However, the part is more comprehensible if thought of as an unusually dynamic member of a chamber ensemble that plays during the solo episodes.

There is little to fault in this edition; it is meticulously researched and the editing is at a consistently high level. A detractor might regard some of the repertoire as derivative and lacking in genuine musical interest. However, this judgment does not take into account the remarkably varied approaches to the keyboard concerto genre that were developed in England in the late eighteenth century, whose subtleties would repay careful study. The ritornello procedures used by earlier composers in first movements, for instance, are varied. To judge from the contents of this edition, most English composers were notably ambivalent towards the Vivaldian ‘circuit’ approach in which tonal instability is created by the avoidance of the tonic in the middle portions of the movement; the opposite tendency, or ‘pendulum’ approach, is in full operation in Stanley's concerto, for example (for a discussion of these two types of ritornello form see Simon McVeigh and Jehoash Hirshberg, The Italian Solo Concerto, 1700–1760: Rhetorical Strategies and Style History (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2004), 13–18). An interesting exception is Arne's Concerto in G minor (no. 4, composed in the 1740s or 1750s), but although the solo episodes lead to a number of key areas, the modulations occur, or are anticipated, almost instantaneously at the beginning of each episode. Chilcot's approach, on the other hand, seems to represent an interesting hybrid between the ritornello-form movements of Arne and others and the later sonata allegro (this has been described in Timothy Rishton, ‘Thomas Chilcot and His Concertos’ (PhD dissertation, Bangor University, 1991), 144–151). It is to be hoped that this edition will stimulate greater interest in the English keyboard concerto, both as a subject of analytical study and as material for further new editions and performances.