Bach Suite No 2; Handel Water Music

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel

Label: Legendary Classics

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 69

Mastering:

Stereo
Mono
ADD

Catalogue Number: 420 857-2PLC

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
(4) Orchestral Suites, Movement: No. 2 in B minor, BWV1067 (flute & strings) Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
(Royal) Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam
Eduard van Beinum, Conductor
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Water Music George Frideric Handel, Composer
(Royal) Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam
Eduard van Beinum, Conductor
George Frideric Handel, Composer
While this music-making is very enjoyable in its way, whether it can legitimately be described as 'Legendary' is another matter. The sound is certainly remarkably good—indeed, it conveys quite a modern effect (helped by the NoNoise remastering technique—see May, page 1561—employed to reduce the background), although the style of the playing does not. The Bach suite opens in an expansively amiable fashion after a harpsichord flourish, as if to say 'we know about harpsichords in Bach'. However, the absence of double-dotting is striking and tempos are leisurely, notably in the Badinerie, but also more agreeably in the Sarabande and Minuet, played with great warmth and the fullest string timbre.
This is not, then, for authenticists and neither is what must have been one of the first complete sets of Water Music in stereo. But the famous tunes older generations will have got to know in the Harty suits come up splendidly, and the Amsterdam horn playing is particularly resonant.'

Discover the world's largest classical music catalogue with Presto Music. 

Stream on Presto Music | Buy from Presto Music

Gramophone Print

  • Print Edition

From £6.67 / month

Subscribe

Gramophone Digital Club

  • Digital Edition
  • Digital Archive
  • Reviews Database
  • Full website access

From £8.75 / month

Subscribe

                              

If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.