Water Music/Royal Fireworks/Concerti

This Seraphim CD offers great value, beautiful sound and great performances for very little outlay. William Steinberg and the Pittsburgh Symphony perform Sir Hamilton Harty's version of Handel's "WATER MUSIC" Suite (6 movements) with all the panache and majesty anyone could ask for. How can listeners prefer period instruments over a sound like this?

Charles Mackerras and the London Symphony do yeoman service to the oft recorded "Music for the Royal Fireworks", and if the tempos seem a little stiff and unyielding, Handel's music is still very well served. One problem (and question?) I have is repeating the Introduction in I, before launching in to the Allegro section of this movement. I have never heard it done this way, and think it adds several extra minutes unnecessarily to the piece. Mackerras' recording of the Handel Concerto for 2 horns is excellent in every way, even with a large orchestra: beautiful string and wind playing, and great sound. One movement is almost note for note the same as the chorus, "Lift up your heads" from MESSIAH; I was not familiar with this work until this week, and I have been listening to Handel for over 30 years.

Hans Martin Linde's recording of Concerto Grosso 2 in B flat (Op. 3:2) is also very fine; do not be afraid of the period instruments: they play very well, are in tune, and sound full and rich. Allegros are not too fast, but never drag - excellent.

The disc closes with the "Pastoral sinfonia", from MESSIAH, by Charles Mackerras/English Chamber orchestra: very lovely, but I'm curious as to why the disc's producer decided to end with a quiet piece. This would be better performed earlier in the track listings/program, which you can do by programming your player in a different order from the play list. Recommended.

The original EMI Seraphim budget CD line has to be the greatest value for the money in the history of music. For half the price of other so-called budget lines, including the new version of EMI Seraphim and the Sony Essential Classics series, you get first-rate performances from the golden age of stereo by some of the greatest conductors of the century. On this particular title you get a brilliant performance of Handel's Water Music Suite by William Steinberg and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra from 1959. Steinberg is an immense conductor and I have spent considerable time (and sometimes money) tracking down his great EMI recordings, which have been reissued on CD in recent years only to be deleted at an alarming rate. The remainder of this disc features Charles Mackerras conducting the London Symphony and English Chamber Orchestras in Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks, Concerto A Due Cori No. 2 and Pastoral Symphony from The Messiah, and Hans-Martin Linde and the Linde Consort in Concerto Grosso No. 2. I've never been a big fan of Mackerras' bombastic style, but considering the material these performances are pretty sedate and thus enjoyable. Well, suffice it to say that with all this great music, you've got an excellent disc at any price.