Georg Friedrich Handel’s “Water Music” and “Royal Fireworks Music” are two of my all-time favorite works of the baroque era, especially the second one. The grace, the energy, the vitality and the beauty of the music is unparalleled. I’ve heard multiple versions, but this is my first time with a period-instrument recording.
Period-instrument recordings are not for everyone. Many people love to listen to baroque pieces in a style that probably resembles how they originally sounded centuries ago much more closely, but it’s not everybody’s cup of tea. The lack of modern techniques like vibrato, the slightly colder sound of less-developed instruments sometimes prove too much for some music lovers used to the deep and powerful sounds of 20th century orchestras.
In my view, Handel’s masterpieces receive a great treatment in this Philips recording but ultimately the sound of period-instruments leaves me a little cold. I miss the sweeping vibrato of modern versions like Marriner’s with the St. Martin-in-the-Fields Academy. Notes sound too blunt, too final when performed in period-instruments, compared to the depth that modern strings and winds provide. Also, I have some gripe with the horns, so important especially in the suites in D and F of “Water Music”. They’re too over-the-top on this recording, pretty much robbing the rest of the ensemble of its importance whenever they appear. It might be a problem with the sound quality of older horns and trumpets or with the recording, I’m not sure.
The tempos are OK but I feel they’re a little on the fast side. While Gardiner certainly known how to bring about the vitality of the music, its pomp, its majesty, seem a little bit overshadowed on his version of both pieces, which were both composed for solemn occasions and for royal ears, but which seem too gentile, too light here.
I recommend this recording for fans of period instruments. But I’ll rather stay with the venerable version by Marriner and the Academy of St Martin-in-the-fields in DECCA.
3/5
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