Music for the Royal Fireworks, for orchestra, HWV 351
Concerto a due cori No.3 in F major, HWV 334
Concerto a due cori No.1 in B flat major, HWV 332
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Despite the use of period instruments, including some fine blaring natural horns, this couldn't be called a historically informed performance of Handel's Royal Fireworks Music, HWV 351. The work was not composed for a pleasant onboard afternoon musicale like the Water Music, but instead was part of an event that would have been one of the top items on CNN Headline News for 1749: the celebration of the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, brokered by King George II. After going to great lengths in the booklet to describe the back-and ...
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Despite the use of period instruments, including some fine blaring natural horns, this couldn't be called a historically informed performance of Handel's Royal Fireworks Music, HWV 351. The work was not composed for a pleasant onboard afternoon musicale like the Water Music, but instead was part of an event that would have been one of the top items on CNN Headline News for 1749: the celebration of the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, brokered by King George II. After going to great lengths in the booklet to describe the back-and-forth between Handel, who scored the work for a mighty ensemble led by nine trumpets, and the king, who wanted more, the historical-instrument ensemble Zefiro and its leader Alfredo Bernardini give three, plus an agile group of four horns. This may simply be in keeping with the fashion for minimal groupings in early music, but Bernardini is also able to bring out subtle balances involving the strings (whose inclusion, it's true, Handel also campaigned for vigorously) and the quieter...
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