George Frideric Handel
Water & Fire
Collegium 1704 / Václav Luks (Accent)
Review by Graham Rickson
The first performance of Handel’s Water Music took place on the River Thames in July 1717, London’s Daily Courant telling its readers that “a city company’s barge was employed for the musick, wherein were fifty instruments of all sorts.” King George I was impressed, so much so that “he caused it to be played over three times”. Václav Luks’ new recording with Collegium 1704 uses 41 musicians playing period instruments: there’s no sense that we’re being short-changed, the orchestral sound beefy and imposing. Scores of other recordings are available, so why choose this one? The playing is gorgeous: sample the oboes and bassoons in the “Andante”, or raucous but nimble natural horns in the “Allegro da capo”. No Handel autograph manuscript survives, previous editions having grouped the movements into three suites based on their key signatures. Luks uses a new version drawing on research by the late Terence Best, itself based on a score made by Handel’s copyist placing all 20 movements in a single extended sequence. The key changes make this a more interesting and varied listening experience, Luks’s ability to subtly highlight quirkier details in the scoring a constant – I’m thinking of Sylvain Fabre’s tambourine and castanets in the little “Allegro” (traditionally denoted as a “Passepied”, track No. 11 of the disc) and “Country Dance I & II”.
The 1749 premiere of Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks involved larger forces, including 24 oboes and 12 bassoons. King George II wanted a huge wind band with added percussion, overruling Handel’s plan to add strings to the ensemble. All Handelians should own a copy of Charles Mackerras’s 1959 recording of the suite, 62 of London’s best wind, brass and percussion players assembling in the St. Gabriel church at Cricklewood between 11pm and 2:30am, fuelled by adrenalin and liquid refreshments. That album, brilliantly remastered by Testament, still sounds astonishing; once heard, few subsequent recordings can match it. Luks, using Handel’s version with tutti strings, is swifter and tidier than Mackerras, the flowing tempi reminding us that this is a suite of dances. The “Bourrée” zips along, and “La Réjouissance” is perky and witty, the trumpets bright and clear.
An enjoyable disc, beautifully recorded and annotated.
Links
- Disc available in the e-shop of Collegium 1704
- Disc on the website of the British retailer Presto Music
- Prague Crossroads (St Ann Church, founded by St Wenceslas in 927). An exceptional space with a unique atmosphere and great acoustics, where the recording was made.