Handel: The 12 Concerti Grossi, Opus 6.  The Academy of Ancient Music,
Andrew Manze, director.  Harmonia Mundi HMU 907228/9 (also available from
BMG Record Club).

This album has been out for several months now, and while it has been
reviewed elsewhere, I don't recall any mention of it here.  So my two cents
worth.

I'd been looking for a CD issue of Handel's Op. 6 for some time now,
mainly to replace my "standard" set, which has been the one by Trevor
Pinnock directing the English Concert on Archive, recorded in the early
80s.  I have this Op. 6 on cassette, and while still servicable, I've
had to transfer the tapes to new cassette shells when the original shell
mechanisms wore out.  The Pinnock has been the recording by which I judge
all other versions, HIP or not, since I bought it.  And while I know it's
been available on CD, I had put off until now the decision whether or not
to buy it again in that incarnation, given that new recordings of the work
have been coming along which promised new ideas in its interpretation.

For a number of reasons, I find that the Academy's new recording, (led by
Manze, the Bad Boy of HIP violin playing), will serve as my new touchstone
for these concertos.  The sound seems to let the gut strings of the
instruments come alive.  I can easily make out the concertino group as it
breaks into solo passages.  The playing is marvelous, more of which later.
But mainly it fulfills my personal requirement of showing WHY this set of
concertos is often said to be the only one capable of vying for the summit
of Baroque concerted instrumental music, along with Bach's Brandenburgs.

In fact, as I've gotten older, I have come around to the point where I
now prefer Handel's Op. 6 to the Brandenburgs.  I'm not sure why-I was
certainly more taken in the past with the variety of instrumentation in the
Bach, with its mix of wind and string, brass and keyboard virtuosity.  And
the very ad hoc nature of how the BCs were bundled up together and sent off
to the Margrave makes one almost mad with anticipation at what concertos
Bach might have held back, and which have since been lost.

Obviously, Handel's effort isn't without its own sense of the ad hoc.
This music borrows from some of his other works (not to mention "ideas"
from other composers).  For example, the album opens not with Concerto #1,
but with #5-parts of which also have another incarnation as the Overture to
his nearly contemporary "Ode for St. Cecilia's Day." Other movements come
from operas, other concertos, his earlier sonatas etc.  (the most famous
example probably being Concerto #9's alter ego as the Organ Concerto
nicknamed "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale").  And there's plenty of
variation between concertos, in the number of movements, the tempi, the
interplay between major and minor keys, etc.  But Handel did, so the liner
notes say, create this grand cycle of concertos in the space of a month,
with a unified sense of ensemble and creative vision, in a plausible sense
a tribute to that other great Opus 6 cycle, by Corelli.  It simply sounds
like it's part of a grand plan, rather than chosen out of a bin to be
recopied for some obscure unappreciative nobleman.  As such, it exploits
the pure sound of a string ensemble to the greatest of G.F.'s abilities,
while allowing the listener to focus on the music itself.  And if, as
Stanley Sadie says, it was created mainly to be sold for publication and
performed in the intermissions of his operas and oratorios, so what? He
pulled out the stops, and it sounds glorious.

Thus, the reason why I have been playing this set constantly in the week
since I've gotten it is that the performances make me keenly aware of what
great MUSIC this is, whatever its recycled origins, or the rather basic
orchestration.  Just a string ensemble with soloists and continuo, yet you
can get a sense of Handel the opera composer, Handel the creator of the
grand oratorio, Handel the writer of the stirring anthem or the dance suite
composer or even the keyboard virtuoso.  One only has to listen to
movements such as the grand Polonaise of Concerto #3, which exploits the
richness of that full string sound, or the sense of real occasion, as in
the beginning of #5, or the jauntiness of the Hornpipe of #7 to experience
the wide range of expression here.

I have not heard many of the recent competing versions of Op. 6.  My
earliest fond memories of this music was from the old Angel/EMI set with
Menuhin and the Bath Festival Orchestra.  Among more recent recordings
with modern instruments, I always thought the Guildhall String Ensemble's
version to be quite stylish and satisfying.  In the HIP arena, I haven't
heard the incomplete cycle by Christie and Les Arts Florissants, or the
complete Harnoncourt.  I do have the recording of Nos.  1-6 by Pearlman and
Boston Baroque on Telarc; evidently there are no plans for them to record
the rest of the concertos.  Judging from my rather cold reaction to this
version; I wasn't keen on waiting for any sequel, as it seemed foursquare
and rather dull.  Hogwood, still the Academy's director, has recorded this
set with the Handel and Haydn Society's orchestra; I haven't heard this
one, mainly because I was hesitant to plunk down the bucks for three full
price CDs which were only two-thirds full of music.  Meanwhile, the new
Harmonia Mundi release manages to squeeze the entire cycle onto two very
full CDs, which is a consideration in its favor.  The concertos are not
arranged in strict numerical order, which may have been to help squeeze
them onto the two disks.  However, I didn't detect any problems with the
order as far as the ability to listen to a complete disk, without
interruption.

There are some differences between Manze's group and Pinnock's, although
they are of comparable size in the two recordings.  Pinnock, I think, has
the more lively continuo, perhaps reflecting his own direction from the
keyboard (harpsichord or chamber organ; while Manze supplements the former
with an archlute).  Pinnock also uses the optional oboe and bassoon
doublings in the ripieno parts of several of the concertos, which Manze
doesn't do.  While I can understand that there are historical reasons why
the wind doublings are considered ill-advised, Pinnock makes it work,
letting the use of the winds bring additional color to the music, much
as similar doublings work with the string and choral parts in a Handel
oratorio performance.  Sometimes there is a more legato articulation in
the Pinnock recording which works well to my taste, though I don't sense
any sort of objectionably clipped playing in Manze's version.  Of course,
tempos can be on the fleet side, as is HIP practice, but not objectionably
so, and the slower movements do breathe.  Manze does allow himself some
brief moments of extra improvisational exuberance in his soloistic work,
the final Allegro from Concerto #11 being a prime example, which I've not
heard in any other incarnation.

If you have Pinnock's recording and are well satisfied with it, you may not
feel so compelled to get Manze's, unless you're looking for the latest in
recorded sound or wish to hear a pure string version.  However, if you're
looking for an Op. 6 set on period instruments, I would very much
recommend this one for your consideration.  Among the full priced HIP
versions, it may be the best bang for the buck as well.

Bill H.