George Frederick HANDEL (1689-1751)
Concerti Grossi, Op.3 Nos 1-6 [53.50]
Concerti Grossi, Op.6 Nos 1-12 [154.05]
Philippa Davies (flute), Pamela Thorby, Rebecca Austen-Brown (recorders), Ian Watson (organ)
Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields/Iona Brown (violin)
rec. 1994/95, Henry Wood Hall, London
HÄNSSLER CLASSIC HC17036 [4 CDs: 207:55]
This is a reissue of the third recorded set of the complete Handel Concerti Grossi made by the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields. The first Decca set was made in the 1960s under the Academy’s founding conductor Sir Neville Marriner; it was for many years the prime (rosetted) recommendation of the Penguin Guide for a recording of these concertos. The second ASMF set, for Philips, shared the conducting duties between Marriner and Iona Brown. This Hänssler set from the 1990s was directed entirely by Brown, and like the Decca set it included the additional parts that Handel wrote for wind soloists in some of the concerti to supplement the original scoring for strings.
This later set is in places very slightly quicker than the 1960s recordings, but the differences are minimal and generally the tempi remain much as before – certainly they avoid the Scylla of over-heavy emphasis to be found in many old-style interpretations, and the Charybdis of over-speedy and superficial traversal of the music which afflicts so many modern versions given with period instruments. As such the readings might perhaps be pejoratively dismissed as a ‘safe’ option – were it not for the fact that they bristle with life and enjoyment throughout, with lively rhythms and expressive cantilenas both taking turns in some of Handel’s most infectiously enjoyable music. Added spice is added with some judicious ornamentation at appropriate places.
The packaging and presentation of this new issue is basic in the extreme: there are barely any notes on the music, simply a listing of the tracks, and not even details of the solo oboists featured in individual concertos – an omission all the more culpable when the identical names of the recording team and dates are given in full three times for the Op.6 sessions and a full page is devoted to advertisements for other releases. Nor is the re-issue as economical as it might be, since the whole contents of the four CDs could have easily been accommodated onto three.
That is a pity, as otherwise this set could be highly recommended to novices who are not familiar with the music and wish to expand their Handelian repertoire beyond the well-trodden paths of Messiah and the ceremonial Water and Fireworks Musics. On the other hand the same listener is unlikely to come across any rival version of this repertoire which is at one and the same time so engaging on the surface and so involving in the undercurrents. Nobody in their right minds is going to listen to these discs straight through from beginning to end, but they will provide a most worthwhile quarry for excavation, exploration and investigation.
The original CDs were at one time included in a 2003 bumper box from Brilliant Classics which also included the ASMF recordings under Marriner of the Water and Fireworks Music on an additional disc (it was reviewed for this site by Jonathan Woolf). But this new set avoids the possibilities of potential duplication (many collectors will already have a disc of the two ‘occasional’ suites); and it is excellent that, after a quarter of a century, these recordings are being given a new lease of life. Even those who are welded to the cause of ‘historically informed performance’ should find these traversals of the scores a source of enjoyment.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
