The Brook Street Band, here pared down to trio size, is named for Handel's London address and has carried out some deep dives into his music. These sonatas for violin and continuo qualify for that heading: several of them are widely regarded as spurious, although they're strong enough to have convinced the German compilers of the Händel Werke Verzeichnis of their authenticity. The Brook Street Band has also recorded Handel's trio sonatas, and buyers in search of one album might choose that. But this release is a thorough ...
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The Brook Street Band, here pared down to trio size, is named for Handel's London address and has carried out some deep dives into his music. These sonatas for violin and continuo qualify for that heading: several of them are widely regarded as spurious, although they're strong enough to have convinced the German compilers of the Händel Werke Verzeichnis of their authenticity. The Brook Street Band has also recorded Handel's trio sonatas, and buyers in search of one album might choose that. But this release is a thorough pleasure as well. All but one of the sonatas are in the conservative slow-fast-slow-fast pattern of the earlier Italian sonata, a factor militating against the authenticity of some of the later pieces. But the material is worked out in characteristically Handelian ways, and the players make a good case for the music as genuine Handel. Sample one of the fast movements, for example, the Allegro of the Violin Sonata in D minor, HWV 359a, to hear the vigorous, strongly rhythmic, rather...
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