Is it really almost twenty-five years since this
fascinating recording was made? When they were first issued critics
rather shook their heads in disapproval. And you must remember
that they date from a time when Harnoncourt was certainly not
a mainstream performer and performances of Handel’s music were
nowhere near as general as nowadays. That said, these are never
going to be middle of the road or even library recordings. Harnoncourt’s
searching intelligence is applied to the problems of performing
these great works and not once do we find him taking things for
granted or considering the music lightly. These are performances
that emphasise Handel’s greatness by taking him seriously. Not
for Harnoncourt the enjoyable bounce along the surface of the
works or the cautious blandness that ensures the performance will
offend no-one (but won’t inspire anyone either).
Though these works are vintage Handel, it is
unlikely that he took an active role in their publication. In
1734, when they were published, their publisher, John Walsh, was
essentially still producing pirate editions of Handel’s works.
But during this period, Handel was developing more of an interest
in the non-operatic side of his career. His non-operatic music
was gaining wider exposure and Handel (who always had an eye to
the main chance) may have seen this as a way of compensating for
the problems in his operatic career. He took an active role in
Walsh’s next publication, the Opus 4 Organ Concerti. Handel probably
did not choose Walsh as his official publisher; rather he tacitly
recognised Walsh’s pre-eminent position as the most successful
pirate music publisher of his works. In Georgian England, copyright
protection for composers was rather limited and not very well
enforced.
The Concerti Grossi Opus 3 are rather a mixed
bag of pieces from various parts of Handel’s career. Concerto
Grosso no. 1 may have been composed in Hannover. Its scoring includes
two viola range parts in different clefs, something that links
them to works by Venturini, a leading Hannoverian court musician.
The attractive 2nd concerto was probably written for
the orchestra at the Haymarket Theatre in 1718/19 and uses movements
from one version of the overture to the Brockes Passion. Concertos
3 and 5 are both arranged from music that Handel originally wrote
for the anthems for Cannons, the home of the Duke of Chandos (the
so-called 'Chandos Anthems'). The first two movements of no. 3
are arranged from this source and the last movement is a based
on a keyboard fugue from the same period (in an arrangement that
may not even be Handel's). Concerto No. 5 is simply taken bodily
from one of the Cannons’ manuscripts (where it is called a sonata).
No. 4 was originally the second overture to the opera Amadigi,
performed in 1716. In the very first edition of the work, this
concerto was replaced by another in the same key, of unknown provenance.
This was soon corrected and all Walsh’s later editions of the
concerto include the familiar one. On this disc Harnoncourt gives
us both Handel’s F major concerto and the F major concerto by
an unknown hand. But the most problematic concerto is the last,
where a single movement taken from a three movement concerto is
attached to a second movement based on an organ concerto. Handel
had split the first movement off from its siblings when he used
in 'Ottone'. This confusion of movements on Walsh’s part probably
reflects Handel’s partial disengagement from the production of
the publication. Walsh must have had access to Handel to get the
requisite copies of the pieces, but Handel certainly did not oversee
the results.
The opening movement of the 1st concerto
gives a clear idea of the performance style that Concentus Musicus
Wien bring to these works. They play in a brisk, crisp manner
given the notes plenty of air. The wind have a fine sense of line
and the solo playing is admirable and assured, certainly no sense
of the performance on these early instruments being experimental.
The strings though, play in a rather accented manner. This détaché
sort of playing gives the music the right feel but it imbues it
with a sober, seriousness. Later groups, such as Jeanne Lamon’s
Tafelmusik, play with more of a feeling of bounce which gives
the music a sense of joie de vivre that is rather lacking in this
Harnoncourt recording. It is instructive to compare the tempi
of these recordings with those of Tafelmusik (which is one of
the more highly regarded of the recent recordings of the work).
Tafelmusik’s speeds are generally, but not always, faster than
Harnoncourt’s. For all its many virtues, this recording does sometimes
seem to miss out on the fun element concerned as Harnoncourt is
to probe the music deeply whereas Jeanne Lamon (recorded 20 years
after this recording) is able to combine serious of purpose with
a sense of joy.
Speeds are also not always what one would expect.
The Allegro of the 2nd concerto is a rather sedate
affair, but this is balance by similarly sedate Menuet and Gavotte.
Not that the music is too slow, the wonderful articulation of
the Concentus Musicus players ensures that. It is almost as if
Harnoncourt is forcing us to listen again to this music which
can become too familiar.
But not everything comes off. The hauntingly
beautiful Largo of the 2nd concerto has a rather awkward
balance between the oboe and the solo cellos. These latter are
played lightly in a manner that is almost too discreet. In the
3rd concerto, the solo violin comes rather awry with
the fast string crossing passages; a rare moment of error in what
is otherwise a fine solo performance. The closing Allegro of this
movement is another movement where Harnoncourt tries a slower
tempo and this time, the articulation does not seem to work and
the movement sounds too deliberate to my ears.
These are not performances for every day or for
all ears. Not everything works but one can only applaud Harnoncourt’s
audacity. I would not want to be without this disc but I would
definitely need another performance as well. For preference, Tafelmusik
where Jeanne Lamon demonstrates a sense of life-enhancing fun
that is missing from Harnoncourt’s searching re-examination of
Handel’s genius.
Robert Hugill