Search - Handel, Gerard Schwarz, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra :: Handel: Water Music (Complete)

Handel In The Flesh--250 Years Later

Andrew K. Wong | Pasadena, CA | 02/02/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This must be one of the finest recordings of "The Water Music," if not the best (with due respect to the renditions of Trevor Pinnock and Neville Marriner, among others). It is an unofficial truism of classical music that the best recordings of a piece are made by conductors and artists of the same nationality as the composer. Handel was German by birth, but principal Court Composer to King George I of England. Thus, English artists dominate most interpretations of "The Water Music" and are enjoyable in their own right--performances touched with the pagaentry, pomp and circumstance of His Majesty's Court holding royal water parties on the River Thames. Schwarz's rendition, however, captures not only the best of the courtly ambience on the Thames but Handel's passion as well. Schwarz and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra not only inspire and refresh but set you on the edge of your chair with every passing movement. It is hard not to press the "repeat" button on the compact player after the piece is finished. King George I himself commanded that the orchestra repeat "The Water Music" three times that night in July, 1717, along the Thames. The tempos are varied, lively and brisk but are never rushed as in many other recordings. The predominance of strings and woodwinds give the piece a light and airy tenor. Most impressive is Schwarz's "terracing" of both expression and orchestration. In the Bourree ending Suite II in D, for example, Schwarz uses only the strings the first time, adds the woodwinds the second time, and then commits the full orchestra the third time. Moreover, the gradual expression of piano to mezzo forte to forte in the Bourree is typical of Schwarz's interpretation. Schwarz is faithful to all of Handel's instructions to repeat certain movements. As a result, the amount of music on this CD is greater than most other recordings of "The Water Music." The digital sound is bright, clear and forward with no edge. The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra delivers a virtuoso performance. The tonguing and trills of the brass is brilliant. This tantalizing ornamentation debuts in the Minuet of Suite I and crescendoes to its peak in the Allegro and Alla Hornpipe of Suite II. As with the expression and orchestration, the ornamentation also terraces with each passing refrain. This improvisation is true to Handel's intent for the piece, to the style of Baroque music and would make the composer beam. There are many other outstanding features of this performance that a review could not do justice to. Perhaps the most apt characterization of this recording is that the listener feels Handel's passion pumping in his blood. Handel was the one who shut himself in his room for well-nigh a month with scant food and water and even less sleep as he churned out the greatest oratorio ever to grace the heavens in "The Messiah." Handel was also not above engaging in a duel now and then to avenge perceived insults. Schwarz's rendition of Handel's "The Water Music" does justice not only to the piece, but to the man behind the music."

Best Recording Of Handel's "Water Music"

Erik North | San Gabriel, CA USA | 02/21/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Many classical listeners became acquainted with George Frideric Handel's masterpiece "Water Music" through the modern orchestration made by Sir Hamilton Harty in the early years of the 20th century, an orchestration that is for some as hard to take as Stokowski's transcriptions of Johann Sebastian Bach's great organ pieces. Most conductors since, however, have chosen to go with the intimate baroque scoring that Handel originally had in mind, whether they are conductors of modern orchestras or period-instrument ensembles.



This is what the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and conductor Gerard Schwarz had chosen to go with on this 1980 recording of this baroque masterwork, a recording that is arguably the best such recording out there. In a tactic that Handel would have found appropriate, Schwarz divides the work up into three different sections that spotlight certain sections of the orchestra. Suite No. 1, in F Major, is given over primarily to the French horn players; Suite No. 2, in D Major, spotlights the trumpets; Suite No. 3, in G Major, is primarily a showcase for the flutes and oboes (and a piccolo), underpinned as on the other suites by a harpsichord. As is very much typical for Handel, both the full orchestra and the instrumentalists spotlighted need to be on their toes constantly.



This is what happens on this recording: everyone navigates through this work with a flourish. This recording's particular version of the "Alla Hornpipe" in the D Major suite is pulled off with particular skill, as is Schwarz's arrangement of that suite's final Bourree. Patricia Mabee provides the harpsichord continuo ornamentations that are part-and-parcel of the baroque period. The quality of the Delos engineers, made in December 1980 at Bridges Auditorium in Claremont, is an added bonus.



Of the dozens of recordings made of this venerable baroque masterpiece, very few have really come close to this one (with the possible exception of Raymond Leppard's 1970 Philips recording with the English Chamber Orchestra). It is a highly recommended recording."