Telarc here simultaneously offers rival versions of Handel’s Water Music; the one from Martin Pearlman and Boston Baroque is completely new, the one from Mackerras and the Orchestra of St Luke’s a mid-price reissue of a 1991 recording, well-contrasted in using modern, not period, instruments. Even so, Mackerras characteristically has his players following period practice in many ways, and his speeds are quite often faster than those adopted by Pearlman, notably in minuets.

Meanwhile, on DG Archiv’s new Blue reissue label, is Trevor Pinnock’s vintage account of the complete Water Music, recorded in 1983, this time generously coupled with the six-movement 24-minute-long Overture to Il pastor fido, a work very similar in style which dates from five years earlier.

All three discs can be warmly recommended, though the Mackerras, lacking a coupling, offers rather short measure. The 1991 recording is full and bright, with impressive antiphonal contrasts between trumpets and horns, making Mackerras’s account of the ‘Alla Hornpipe’ from the Suite in D more flamboyant than the relatively restrained Pearlman reading in which horns are balanced farther away. Pinnock with his period instruments in many ways has the advantage over both of them, offering the most dramatic antiphonal contrasts.

In the other ‘Hornpipe’ from the Suite in F the contrasts between the three are just as striking. Mackerras is very fast and springy with offbeat accents sharply marked, while Pearlman, almost as fast, is plainer with accents less sharp. Pinnock’s tempo typically is broader, allowing the syncopations to be given an infectious swing. Similarly, Pinnock in such lyrical movements as the ‘Air’ from the Suite in F is not just broader but adopts a more affectionately expressive style than Pearlman, which may not please the more severe period devotees.

The texts are not identical, with Pinnock, unlike Pearlman and Mackerras, not including the two ‘Variant’ movements which are substantially transpositions of familiar pieces from the D major Suite. Also, instead of separating the three Suites in different keys, he adopts the order of movements established in the old Chrysander Handel Edition, mixing those in D and G. The widest discrepancy between the performances comes in the movement with which Pinnock ends the F major Suite and which with the other two precede the ‘Variant’ movements: Mackerras, calling it an Allegro, makes it very fast and light (2'22"), where Pearlman, labelling it Andante, is slow and rather plodding (3'58"), while Pinnock, also calling it an Andante, takes a half-way course, arguably the best answer (3'07").

In the ‘Country Dance’ of the G major Suite, Pinnock has a variant reading of the first section with the recorder untrammelled by being doubled with violins, a delightful effect. His soloists, too, have the edge over their impressive Boston rivals, notably the late David Reichenberg on the oboe, both in the Water Music and in the Il pastor fido Overture.

Pearlman has the more logical coupling in the Fireworks Music. If his account of the Overture is a little square in the slow introduction, it is illuminated with crisp double-dotting, leading on to a very fast Allegro. The ‘Bourree’, taken very fast, has a winning lightness, and so have ‘La Rejouissance’ and the final Minuet. A good recommendation, even though vintage versions offering this same coupling include some, like Roger Norrington’s on Virgin, that have now been issued at mid-price.