Putting England In The Mainstream

This is one of an excellent series called Panorama put out by Deutsche Grammophon, raiding their archives to put together budget priced double cd's featuring various composers or themes. DG's archives are of a pretty high quality and so these issues make very good introductions. The one in question today is George Frideric Handel and the performers The English Concert under Trevor Pinnock. The booklet makes a point of saying "on authentic instruments". I'm not sure what constitutes inauthentic instruments but this in fact means the recordings are from the early days of the period instrument movement in the early to mid eighties and although research into performance practice continues, they hold up well. Disk one features the complete ceremonial Water Music and Music For The Royal Fireworks, while disk two is more intimate three Concerti Grosso, a Concerto a Due Cori and the Harp Concerto with soloist Ursula Holliger. Disk two puts Handel firmly in the European mainstream, as would be expected from his German roots and his time in Italy. Disk one manages to evoke some kind of timeless Englishness despite Handel only being an adopted son and the court the music was written for essentially a German one. This is a fine example of Handel's insrumental craft to place alongside the many operatic and choral masterpieces.