CONCERTO GROSSO CORNUCOPIA

posted by James Reel

Here are a couple of Handel concerto grosso reviews I wrote for two different publications a few months ago ...

Handel: Concerti Grossi, Op. 6 Nos. 7-12. Martin Pearlman conducting Boston Baroque (Telarc 80688)

Handel dashed off his dozen concerti grossi published as Op. 6 in barely a month, but it’s been a full 15 years since Martin Pearlman and Boston Baroque recorded the first half of the set. Now, at last, here’s the rest of the group, and it was well worth the wait.

In 1739, Handel’s publisher, John Walsh, was eager to cash in on the popularity of the concerti grossi of Corelli and Geminiani, so he asked Handel for something in the same manner. Handel quickly complied, and made his work a bit easier by dropping in quotes from his just-completed Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day, not to mention pieces by Scarlatti and Muffat. Despite the borrowings, the whole set sounds like vintage Handel, and Pearlman and his little band of string players know exactly what to do with it.

As in their recording of the first half of the collection, and their more recent treatment of the Water Music and Royal Fireworks Music, the playing is quite suave. The period-instrument group easily meets Handel’s greatest challenge: conveying stateliness without stiffening up. Beyond that, the musicians can also sound light, playful, even Italianate, as in the final concerto. Throughout, there’s a suppleness that stops well short of affectation, even while Pearlman devotes great attention to such details as attacking musical paragraphs differentely from the way of attacking individual phrases within them. The only complaint: Telarc shouldn’t have taken a decade and a half to complete this fine cycle. James Reel

HANDEL Concerti Grossi, Op. 6 * Martin Gester, cond; Arte dei Suonatori * BIS SACD-1705/06 (Hybrid multichannel SACD: 163:39)

Both pronunciations of the word “polish” come into play here. First, with the long “o”: Arte dei Suonatori is a first-rate Polish period-instrument ensemble that has previously recorded Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Telemann for BIS, and made a fabulous version of Vivaldi’s La Stravaganza with Rachel Podger for Channel Classics. Now the group is featured on a BIS survey of Handel’s Op. 6 concerti, those for strings only, and here’s where the other pronunciation comes in: These are wonderfully polished performances. The solo work is nimble, the textures are clear, the tempos are lively and lithe in the fast movements and stately in the slow ones, the latter carrying a plaintive elegance reminiscent of Corelli. The interpretations are not particularly extravagant; this is—after all, Handel rather than Vivaldi—and the ornamentation is fairly restrained by current standards. Because director Martin Gester’s tempos are not hard-driven (though neither are they sluggish) and repeats are generous, the dozen works spill over to a third CD. The package is sold for the price of two, which is fine, but with performances of this quality one wants even more; I wish BIS had added Handel’s Op. 3 set and charged full price. The SACD sonics are up to the label’s usual standards, clear projection in a resonant space that gives firm support to the bass line. Good liner notes by David Vickers add to the value of the package.

At this writing, there seems to be no SACD competition for this Handel Op. 6 set, but Gester’s edition is a top choice in any format, alongside the rather more driven Andrew Manze/Academy of Ancient Music version on two conventional Harmonia Mundi CDs and the elegant Martin Pearlman/Boston Baroque version on Telarc. James Reel