Handel's Water Music: EMS 2 July

[doversoul1]

Hannah French delves into the history and musical detail of one of Handel's best-known pieces - his Water Music, first performed for King George I on the River Thames in July 1717 […]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08wn0l7

[MickyD]

I have to say that I am very tempted to get hold of that Hervé Niquet version - a huge period orchestra in a vast acoustic and the piece has never sounded so French!

[Bryn]

Do go for the later SACD issue. You get a bonus track in addition to the higher definition audio. Their Prom performance was somewhat controversial here, but I laved it, in the Hall, as recorded to hard disc from the television broadcast and via the iPlayer for Radio 3. It can still be found on YouTube:

etc.

Their DVD of Purcell's King Arthur is a hoot! Up there with Monty Python.

[Dave2002]

Very good EMS today - with quite a few different orchestras and directors - all of them (arguably) authentic/HIPP approaches.

I was rather taken with the Ensemble Berlin Academy of Ancient Music - and the timpani parts. Although the original Water Music would not have had timpani, it was explained that it was played a lot after the original performance, and it is at least plausible that timpani parts may have been added.

Overall a very good programme, and most probably a good one to listen to again, and again ...

[MickyD]

Do go for the later SACD issue. You get a bonus track in addition to the higher definition audio. Their Prom performance was somewhat controversial here, but I laved it, in the Hall, as recorded to hard disc from the television broadcast and via the iPlayer for Radio 3. It can still be found on YouTube:

etc.

Their DVD of Purcell's King Arthur is a hoot! Up there with Monty Python.

Thank you Dave - I had seen that there were two versions and wondered which one to go for - you have answered that for me! I know the performance was controversial - sometimes the horns seem very wayward, but there is something so earthy and unrefined about it all that I am convinced it is probably very close to an 18th century sound. Of course, we shall never know!

[doversoul1]

Very good EMS today - with quite a few different orchestras and directors - all of them (arguably) authentic/HIPP approaches.

I was rather taken with the Ensemble Berlin Academy of Ancient Music - and the timpani parts. Although the original Water Music would not have had timpani, it was explained that it was played a lot after the original performance, and it is at least plausible that timpani parts may have been added.

Overall a very good programme, and most probably a good one to listen to again, and again ...

I thought it was a very good programme too. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Hannah French has shed that university lecturer-ish stiffness and now sounds as if she is really enjoying telling us what she has discovered.

Interesting to hear all those different ensembles.

[Bryn]

Thank you Dave ...

Heh, heh. Shades of Trigger in the Nag's Head.