In her recording of Suites for Keyboard, two-time Debut Audience Award winner Daria van den Bercken approaches Handel’s music with an adventurous spirit that invokes...

In her recording of Suites for Keyboard, two-time Debut Audience Award winner Daria van den Bercken approaches Handel’s music with an adventurous spirit that invokes the music’s joy and lightness. As BBC 3 put it, “Her joy in Handel’s ingenuity shines through.” The album is a part of a larger, multimedia initiative called Handel at the Piano. Through videos and non-traditional stages and platforms, van den Bercken directly connects her performance to the public. “I want everybody to hear this music, to get to know this music,” says the pianist. Online videos give everyone a chance to witness her antics; in one particular stunt, van den Bercken ventures out into the streets of Amsterdam for a literal moving performance. Attached to the back of a car, her piano graces the public with every note she plays as they move about the city, sometimes stopping along the way for passersby to listen. Daria van den Bercken’s recording of Handel’s Suites for Keyboard is as uplifting and dynamic as van den Bercken’s approach to public performance. It is as inviting as the pianist herself, who recently hosted an in-home performance for strangers she had approached in the street.