The Magnificent Mr. Handel

The Magnificent Mr. Handel

The Magnificent Mr. Handel
List Price: $11.98
Our Price: $10.74
You Save: $1.24 (10%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.98 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Listen soundtracks from this album



(Click here)
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store

CD Details

Orchestra: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Performer: E. Power Biggs
Composer: George Frederick Handel
Conductor: Charles Groves
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2009-12-29
Music Label: Sony Classical
Soundtracks:
  1. Alceste: Grande EntrÊe
  2. Semele: 'Where'er You Walk'
  3. Solomon: Sinfonia: Entrance Of The Queen Of Sheba
  4. Samson: Overture: Menuetto
  5. Forest Music
  6. Hercules: March
  7. Concerto In F Major: I Pomposo
  8. Concerto In F Major: II Allegro
  9. Concerto In F Major: A tempo giusto ('Lift Up Your Heads')
  10. The Triumph Of Time And Truth: Sonata
  11. Concerto In B-Flat Major: I Ouverture
  12. Concerto In B-Flat Major: II Allegro ma non troppo ('And the Glory of the Lord')
  13. Concerto In B-Flat Major: III Allegro
  14. Belshazzar: Marcial Symphony
  15. Floridante: March No. 1
  16. Floridante: March No. 2
  17. Tolomeo: Overture
  18. Il Parnasso in festa: Largo
  19. Il pastor fido: Allegro
  20. Ezio: March
  21. Saul: Dead March
  22. Ezio: March
  23. Scipione: March
  24. Rodrigo: Passacaglia
  25. Judas Maccabaeus: March No. 1
  26. Judas Maccabaeus: March No. 2
  27. Alcina: Chorus ('Here Are the Heavens All Joyful')
  28. Ode For St. Cecilia's Day: March
  29. Athalia: Chorus ('The Gods, Whose Chosen Blessings Shed')
  30. Rinaldo: March

Music reviews of The Magnificent Mr. Handel

Music Review: Magnificent is the word
Rating: 5 Stars

For anyone seeking to explore Handel beyond his most popular works (Messiah, Royal Fireworks Music, Water Music), it would be hard to beat this collection of 30 short pieces from many sources, forming a generously filled (78:46) CD of splendid music, and demonstrating why Handel was a great and major composer, and a revered and beloved musical figure in his lifetime.

These recordings were made in the St. James Church, Great Packington, Warwickshire, England, in September, 1969, and originally released on two Columbia LPs, in 1970 and 1972. I bought and grew fond of them then, and I'm happy to see them available again on a budget-priced CD. The music here, entirely instrumental, is "culled for the most part from the operas and oratorios that were the bread-and-butter of Handel's work," to quote the liner notes. This music celebrates the grand, the impressive, the ceremonial, the magnificent side of Handel; the disc is well named. If this CD has a fault, it is that there is too much of grandeur, of splendor, of the stately (there are no less than eleven marches), and too little of the intimate, the introspective, the quiet, the meditative; it makes no attempt to strike a balance.

The engineering is good, if not exceptional; while the sound does not provide the ultimate degree of clarity and focus (not unusual in recordings made in churches), it is smooth and pleasing; these recordings carry their years honorably and wear well. Biggs's role here is a modest, supporting one (the two brief concertos included are not for organ): he plays organ continuo and occasional passages of accompaniment or decoration. His instrument is the Great Packington organ on which Handel himself performed, but it is not prominently displayed. Overall I cannot fault the idiomatic, engaging, alternately spirited or stately performances of Groves, the Royal Philharmonic, and Biggs.

These recordings predate the obsession with period instruments and the efforts to recreate the conditions of performance heard in Handel's day; they are old-fashioned, full-blooded "modern" performances on modern instruments. I find them thoroughly satisfying, and the sonorities and tonal balances more pleasing to my ears than those of period-instruments ensembles. But period-instruments purists may want to be warned away; they, however, probably will not be drawn to this kind of free-ranging anthology in the first place.

If you like baroque instrumental music, I think you'll find this CD pretty hard to resist.

More The Magnificent Mr. Handel free music reviews:
1

Classical CDs

Music Genres
Similar CDs
Rameau: L'Orchestre de Louis XV ImageJordi Savall, Le Concert des Nations - Rameau: L'Orchestre de Louis XV
Release date: 2011-08-09; Music CD
Best price: $19.14
Price in other shops: $24.98
Bach: Berümte Orgelwerke ImageBach: Berümte Orgelwerke
Release date: 2007-04-03; Music CD
Best price: $3.76
Price in other shops: $8.98
Bach: The Four Great Toccatas & Fugues ImageBach: The Four Great Toccatas & Fugues
Release date: 1990-10-25; Music CD
Best price: $4.51
Price in other shops: $7.99
Dvorak: Symphonic Works ImageDvorak: Symphonic Works
Release date: 2012-04-24; Music CD
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops: $69.98
Bach: The Six Trio Sonatas ImageJohann Sebastian Bach - Bach: The Six Trio Sonatas
Release date: 2009-12-30; Music CD
Best price: $10.75
Price in other shops: $11.98
Bach: Great Organ Favorites with E. Power Biggs ImageE. Power Biggs - Bach: Great Organ Favorites with E. Power Biggs
Release date: 2011-07-11; Music CD
Best price: $4.36
Price in other shops: $11.98
The Biggs Bach Book ImageThe Biggs Bach Book
Release date: 1990-10-25; Music CD
Best price: $4.37
Price in other shops: $7.99
Compare prices and find music notes for more than one million Music CD titles