This album celebrates the delicacy and intimacy of the clavichord, the harpsichord’s quieter cousin, which was central to the daily life of musicians for centuries. The title is inspired by the story that Handel’s early biographer John Mainwaring tells, about the young Handel secretly going up to the attic during the night to practise on the clavichord, in defiance of his father. The pieces in the first half are by some of those composers mentioned in a notebook of 1698, now lost, which Handel used while he was studying in Halle with Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow. The second half includes pieces Handel might have played on such an instrument to himself later in life, for relaxation and maybe even solace, away from the demands and intrigues of his frantic public life.

Dubbed ‘The Indiana Jones of Early Music’ by BBC Radio 3, Julian Perkins brings a dynamic and adventurous spirit to all of his music-making. In 2022 he succeeded Monica Huggett as Artistic Director of the Portland Baroque Orchestra in Oregon, USA. Based in the UK, he is also Artistic Director of Cambridge Handel Opera and the period-instrument ensemble Sounds Baroque, and enjoys a busy and varied career as a solo keyboard player, chamber musician and conductor/director.