Whereas the Handelian tradition in France dates back to the end of the eighteenth century, the first performances of his organ concertos remain associated with the organ recitals given at the Trocadéro by Alexandre Guilmant in June 1878. Guilmant saw them as a way to popularize both an ancient and a modern repertoire at the same time. The fact that Handel’s concertos were regularly programmed testifies to a growing interest in his instrumental music. Parisian audiences, who always paid due attention to occasions where Handel was celebrated through the performance of his oratorios in England, were then discovering a new repertoire. What ways did this discovery follow and what was its frequency? What process triggered these movements? In short, what were the factors that facilitated the introduction of Handel’s concerti in France? To answer these questions, one must ground one’s study upon the theories of cultural transfer, which will enable one to take into account the context on both the exporting and the receiving ends (Britain and France respectively), and to determine the role and influence of the various artistic and social mediators and the nature of the mediums used (Handelian biography, press, scores). The artistic and economic challenges that encouraged that phenomenon of appropriation are also studied. This study of transfer based upon the particular case of Handel’s organ concertos testifies to the dynamism of inter-cultural exchanges between England and France and to the intentions and motivations of the actors themselves (William T. Best, Jacques-N. Lemmens and Alexandre Guilmant among others) in the second half of the nineteenth century.
