Search - The Broad Street Band :: Georg Frideric Handel: ''Oxford'' Water Music / Plus chamber works performed on period instruments by Corelli, Geminiani and Leclair

Make "the Italian Connection"

M. C. Passarella | Lawrenceville, GA | 10/13/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This justly celebrated CD really has it all. First, the music is chosen with care to deliver the utmost that Baroque chamber music can provide, from the drama and pathos of Geminiani's minor-key contribution to the hearty tunefulness of that guy who naturally dominates the proceedings, given the name of the performers, Mr. G. F. Handel. (Brook Street was where Handel lived in London.) I can't say that the ever-fresh Water Music comes up even fresher in this chamber version, which is said to predate the famous orchestral version. But the effect of hearing the melody line carried by oboe and then violin (or violin, then oboe) in a game of musical tag is delightful, especially when the oboe is played with such liquid grace as it is by Hannah McLaughlin. This is in the F Major Suite; for the G Minor Suite, McLaughlin takes up the sopranino recorder--just right in this more intimate music.



The lusty music of Handel's Trio Sonata Op. 5, No. 4--lustily played--starts things off in splendid fashion. It's followed by the elegant six-movement suite of Leclair, a side excursion to France that still, like the Handel, has an Italian starting point, which is the overall thesis of this album. The album notes are entitled "The Italian Connection," and they describe how the Italian musical form known as the trio sonata was disseminated, along with Italian musicians, throughout 18th-century Europe. The booklet makes for interesting reading, just as the whole disc makes for interesting, charming, always entertaining listening. And the sound that Avie supplies is absolutely first-rate.

"