Handel: Sonatas for Violin & Basso Continuo / Brook Street Band

$14.99
Label
Avie Records
Release Date
June 1, 2018
Format
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    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      HANDEL, GEORGE FRIDERIC
    • PERFORMER
      The Brook Street Band
    Product Details ⌄
    • RELEASE DATE
      June 01, 2018
    • UPC
      822252238723
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      AV2387
    • LABEL
      Avie Records
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      1
    • GENRE
      Classical
    Works ⌄

    1. I. Allegro

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    2. II. Adagio

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    3. III. Allegro

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    4. I. Grave

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    5. II. Allegro

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    6. III. Adagio

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    7. IV. Allegro

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    8. I. Andante

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    9. II. Allegro

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    10. III. Adagio

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    11. IV. Allegro

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    12. I. Andante larghetto

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    13. II. Allegro

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    14. III. Adagio

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    15. IV. Allegro

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    16. I. Adagio

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    17. II. Allegro

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    18. III. Largo

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    19. IV. Allegro

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    20. I. Adagio

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    21. II. Allegro

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    22. III. Largo

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    23. IV. Allegro

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    24. I. Andante

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    25. II. Allegro

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    26. III. Adagio

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    27. IV. Gigue

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    28. I. Adagio

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    29. II. Allegro

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    30. III. Largo

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    31. IV. Allegro

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    32. I. Affettuoso

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    33. II. Allegro

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    34. III. Larghetto

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris

    35. IV. Allegro

      Composer: George Frideric Handel

      Ensemble: The Brook Street Band

      Performer: Rachel Harris


The Brook Street Band has produced attractive recordings of Handel’s chamber music for Avie, and this newcomer is no exception. There are nine Handel violin sonatas, theoretically, and all of them are included here. Of course, with Handel you never really know. Five sonatas exist in verifiable manuscripts, four were printed without any demonstrable input from the composer, and all of them may well use music by others, as was Handel’s wont. But none of it matters because, as Tovey perspicaciously observed, every note added by Handel annihilates the rest.

The first sonata (in G, HWV158) dates from Handel’s days in Italy, and it’s the only work in three movements. I was a bit worried here because in the central slow movement violinist Rachel Harris adopts a “period instrument tone” that has soft, sustained notes on the verge of disappearing entirely. Of course, a decent vibrato would have helped, but as the saying goes, if the basic timbre is unattractive that’s like trying to put lipstick on a pig. Happily, once past the Sonata in G, Harris shows that her sound in sustained music, while slender, is mellow, touching, and sensitively varied.

The remaining sonatas are all in “church” style, that is four movements, slow-fast-slow-fast(ish). Three are in minor keys, smartly dispersed within the broadly chronological ordering of the set, and they provide welcome contrast to the general predominance of charm and cheer. Of course, all of the music is charming, with an abundance of melody that suggests, as the booklet notes state, that Handel’s authorship even in the four doubtful works is more likely than not. If eighty minutes of less than familiar Handel, elegantly presented and naturally recorded sounds appealing, then by all means give this disc serious consideration.

– ClassicsToday (David Hurwitz)