RECORDS

building your record library number thirty -two

C. G. BURKE PICKS TEN BASIC WORKS OF HANDEL ON RECORDS

ACKNOWLEDGED by everyone a titan among the great, the that directed by Sir Adrian Boult on London LLA 19. Both these Saxon -born, Italian -trained, British -owned George Frederick purport to revert to Handel's original orchestration, although they Handel composed a thousand works and is known by two of them. differ from each other. The remaining editions use the fuller These are, of course, a truncation of the staggering oratorio instrumentation written in by Mozart and later revisers. , and a Largo of inexhaustible melodic persuasion, the most The salvage of the complete , a parade of lusty heartfelt gratitude in music, immune to the affronts of a hundred fanfares and dances, is one of the phonograph's distinguished transcriptions - and perhaps once in a million utterances given as achievements. This used to be famous and unplayed, except six it was written, an for , in an Italian . of its numbers which were made into a suite by the late Sir This Largo ( "Ombra mai fu,' from ) and bits of Messiah Hamilton Harty. The complete work, three times as long as the are staples of Christian devotion at Christmas and Easter and at Harty excerpts, is available on records by five companies. The whatever other churchly festival they may plausibly be used. Berlin Philharmonic disk under Fritz Lehmann (Archive ARC They are great music and ought to entice people into other 3050; not the same performance on Decca 9594) best combines Handelian premises, but these premises have remained nearly in- gusto with force and grace and honorable sonics. accessible because of the sloth of program makers and the unsuit- Two or three of the twelve famous Concerti Grossi, Op. 6, ability of much of the composer's work for modern performance. get an occasional grudging performance in our concert halls. For For he was primarily a composer of Italian opera, in his day strings only, these works transcend in sturdy fancy and lively effect a stringent and grossly factitious dramatic form impossible to anything of their type, and their appeal seems perpetual. The mount nowadays without bankruptcy for the impresario; and he complete Scherchen edition (four disks) in Westminster WAL was secondarily, by political compulsion, a composer of oratorios, 403 is a remarkable exhibition of imagination and sensitivity, which requira great care in vocal preparation. Producers rely on with an orchestral response of a suppleness not encountered in Messiah alone, because all choirs are presumed, wrongly, capable the other versions. In spite of several unconventional tempos of singing decently music never out of rehearsal for more than hard to accept, these are masterly performances. London, in a few months. addition to a twelve -inch album of the twelve concertos in cheerful His orchestral music is simply not orchestral, not effective, in playing by the Boyd Neel Orchestra, offers a convenience by our modern sense. There was no symphony orchestra when he making available the same performances on six ten -inch disks, composed, a number of the instruments we take for granted were sold separately, the concertos in succession one to a discal side. not yet in use, and the proportional distribution of the instruments Two works more flamboyantly scored, Concertos for Winds he did employ is in furious disagreement with the standard and Strings - in independent groups, two of winds and one of arrangement of our standard orchestras. strings - have a robust attraction far above their restricted fame. Naturally it was the phonograph, with its vast hungry audience, Both of these, neatly played and well registered, are on Haydn which braved the difficulties of restoring the archaic mightiness Society 1049, the orchestra being that of the Collegium Musicum (and soft compassions) of Handel into feasible production for at Copenhagen. hearers two centuries late. Not to flatter unduly an instrument The Organ Concertos are irresistible. Vox has pre -empted this for which the writer is propagandist, the phonograph, in essaying field with a three -album edition of sixteen concertos occupying six what a dozen ancient philharmonic societies dare not essay, has disks. They are played by a Stuttgart orchestra and organ with perpetrated some painful fiascos. Still there is nothing on records a determined pulse and cheerful lift emphasized by the brightness so depressing as the average Messiah yelped in the average church. of the organ, and the sound is consistently excellent. Handel A light and tentative beginning, in that field of Italian opera supplied several of these concertos with material pilfered from which was Handel's preferred and largest field, noses a London other compositions of his, and collectors can find sport in trying ten -incher (Ln 9166) containing the Overtures to and to identify the familiar phrases heard here in new dress. One played by the Boyd Neel Orchestra with the fresh and ought to hear first the six concertos of Op. 4 (Vox PL 7532) hearty gusto typical of that group. This is an apéritif for since the albums are for sale separately and this first set always (Oiseau -Lyre 50095/3), an Italian opera of virtue triumphant seems particularly fresh. over machination, in which Handel has transcended his Six Sonatas for Violin and Figured Bass present a Handel grandly, and which a company of English and Welsh singers learned but light, inconsequentially pleasing. Alexander Schneider conducted by Anthony Lewis, specialists they and he in his style, is the violin on a generous Columbia disk (ML 4787) which deliver competently. holds all six, while the bass Is supplied by Ralph Kirkpatrick at The best realization of these works for the stage is the harpsichord and Frank Miller with a cello. In other versions (Oiseau -Lyre 50098/100), an opera in English to the best libretto the harpsichord or piano alone fills in the bass, but the cello Handel ever had. It is called an oratorio, but with its simplicity gives a re- enforcement of strength and interest. of plot and reasonable dramatic sequence Seme /e gains by being Finally, the Te Deum for the victory at Dettingen is the grand acted. Handel has not permitted interest to nod anywhere in this Handel in excelsis, congratulating the Almighty for having sup- work, which is as notable for the power of its orchestral corn - ported the right and good side, and in return promising the mentary as for the beauty of several celebrated . The per- support to a just God of a just and newly imperial England. formance, also led by Anthony Lewis, is well stylized and sung. Broad, exultant phrases and domineering trumpets. The chorus Of the half dozen true oratorios recorded, Messiah, with ten at full lungs baldly declaims glory, and suddenly in awe confesses more -or -less complete versions, has usurped a great share of the that God had a hand in it. Wonderful music, mighty both from performing and recording skills necessary for authoritative editions. the sophistication of the composer and the ingenuousness of the This unparalleled affirmation of direct, stalwart faith is given an patriot. The only recorded projection, by the National Gallery extraordinary reach of unafraid eloquence in the uncut version Orchestra with soloists and choir conducted by Richard Bales, is conducted by Hermann Scherchen on Westminster WAL 308, which intelligently spirited and communicative; and the sound is clear also contains a few tempos unnatural and antipathetic. A more and forceful (McIntosh solo). Without this Te Deum no sober but strong effort, very richly recorded and also uncut, is Handelian is a Compleat Handelian.

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