Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27034 in Music
• Released on: 2005-03-07
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .60 pounds
• Running time: 76 minutes

Customer Reviews

SCHOLARS NOT PEDANTS
Andrew Manze writes nearly as well as he plays. The short essay he provides to accompany this disc is knowledgeable, clear and witty. Handel's instrumental music is a scholars' playground - he left, and very likely kept, no proper catalogue of it, and it falls to specialists to clarify as best they can which compositions going under his name are really his. What the artists here give us is 7 complete sonatas and one that is presumably complete, plus two stranded individual movements. Of the 8 'complete' efforts 5, including the presumed-complete G major, seem to be definitely by Handel. Two sets of 12 'violin' sonatas were published by one Walsh, one under his own name and the other under the pseudonym 'Roger'. The works they contain do not exactly match up, and I would have liked the contents of each plus the contents of this disc laid out as a table so as to be completely clear about the issue. The best piece of all, placed first in this recital, seems to belong in neither edition, and the most original and unusual, placed second, is of doubtful attribution.

The players' style is all-the-way authentic. Full details of the 18th century instruments, plus a fascinating picture of the violin-maker's workshop, are provided on pages 12-13 of the booklet, and Manze goes into the question of the proper constitution of the continuo or accompaniment. I found that I adapted to the sound of the violin within seconds. There's a fair amount of action-noise from the harpsichord, but authentic is authentic, so I adapted to that too. The playing seems to me beyond criticism, full of verve in the fast movements and soul in the slow, and the recorded sound is of the highest modern standard. The works themselves are beautiful and fascinating. I wonder in particular whether Handel wrote the first movement of the F major sonata, and if not who did. It is not only an exceptional piece but decades ahead of its time, as Manze rightly says.

The production is fairly de luxe, containing not only an expensively printed booklet but also a full colour catalogue of Harmonia Mundi's current offerings. The set has won critical acclaim, which I endorse wholeheartedly, and it can be recommended without qualification to all Handelians and indeed to the music-loving public generally.

Perfect simplicity
There's certainly nothing overblown about Andrew Manze's style of playing. The best known of these sonatas by Handel is the Sonata in D Opus 1 No 13 which opens the recording. To some ears, Manze's tone might be too cool and spare - in the opening measures particularly. But to my mind, the sound he creates is perfectly suited to the demands of these small-scale, occasional chamber pieces of the early C18.

As Manze's illuminating essay that accompanies the CD makes clear, only five of the eight complete sonatas on the disc are now thought to be authentically Handel. The others were probably passed off as Handel by unscrupulous publishing houses cashing in on a big name. It might be seen, therefore, as a wonderful opportunity to play the musicologist and 'spot the fake'. Rather than agonising about such things as authenticity, however, it is surely best simply to enjoy the quality of music on offer, regardless of authorship. (Especially so, perhaps, given that experts have been in conspicuous lack of agreement themselves.) In terms of compositional quality and performance, everything here is enriching. Committed, talented playing, lively and inventive writing, faultless recording.

The emphasis throughout is on unpretentious, sincerely presented music-making that is a joy to listen to and (evidently) to play. The pieces are relatively undemanding technically - certainly when compared to Bach's solo violin works or the more pyrotechnical of Vivaldi's sonatas. They are equally unsophisticated artistically, like the final Allegro of the Sonata in F, which could have been inspired by a piece of popular music, with its delightfully simple melodic line. All in all, this is wonderful music played just as it should be. And at a ridiculous price!

Remarkable playing
The other reviewer of this disc does an excellent job of reviewing many of the features of this outstanding disc, but I feel they miss out on what is perhaps the most important part of any musical performance: the playing. And that is what draws me back, time and again, to this wonderful CD. Manze and Egarr bring the music to life in the most remarkable fashion, with flair, musicality and passion. But above all it is Richard Egarr who astonishes me with the sheer beauty of his harpsichord playing. Quite how he achieves the range of colours he does is beyond me entirely, and it is hard to believe he is playing an instrument which generates sound by twanging a string. Stunning.