The title of this compendium rightly eschews the word 'complete'. Even if 'orchestral' is taken to exclude music from stage works and the presence of concerto-status soloists, five hours and 42 minutes are not enough to embrace the entire product of Handel's compositional workaholism; there remain a number of dance arrangements and, more regrettably, the first of the three Concerti a due cori. The regret (and the mystery) is that this last, for which there is ample free playing time on these discs, has been bypassed; but this is a collation of previous CD issues, most of which were themselves based on, or 'doubled' by LPs—to which the programmes were tailored; the missing concerto remains available on CD only via the complete set recorded by the Academy of Ancient Music (L'Oiseau-Lyre 411 721-20H, 5/85). Let us, however, welcome the presence of so many of the family, rather than mourn the absence of one of its members. Each of the recordings in this collection was hailed by various of my colleagues as being the best available; this remains true, on CD or LP.
The English Concert have played a major role in making authentic instruments 'respectable' and showing them as the optional medium for baroque music, and there must by now be few who have not learned that lesson. The days have passed when the playing of period instruments sounded like a losing battle with a boa constrictor, but it is not just a matter of technical competence or even of academic observance, what is more to the point is that the music sounds better. Freed from technical constraints, The English Concert (materially helped by the recording staff of Archiv Produktion) invest the music with clarity of line and texture, buoyant rhythm and, above all, warmth, majesty, vigour and sheer joy. Only in the Concerti a due cori are there moments of discomfort, maybe the problems of bringing period wind instruments to heel are, as NA suggested (8/85) insoluble—maybe Handel too had to settle for what he could get, but they are not better resolved by anyone else on record or, within my experience, the concert hall. The Water Music and Royal Fireworks Music have probably never sounded better but surely pace Walsh, the order of the D and G major Water Music suites needs to be reversed. A small question: why does the booklet show incipits of Op. 6 but of nothing else? However, on the face of such a magnificent, genuinely 'archiv-al' anthology, this and other small blemishes are negligible.'