Handel
Water Music; Music for the Royal Fireworks (Water & Fire)
Collegium 1704/Václav Luks
Accent ACC24412 63:23 mins
You might wonder what new effects artists could possibly wring from Handel’s Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. There are over 60 available recordings of the former, and double that of the latter, among which are many stonking performances. Yet Collegium 1704’s reading is so joyous and brashly nonchalant that I felt like I was hearing this music for the first time.
Despite being 41 musicians strong, the band brings bounce and curl to every gesture: ebullience everywhere, all the time. Dance movements bristle with tension between pulse and surface rhythms, giving an electric hum to all movements, whether the mood is gentle for a minuet or bracing for a hornpipe.
For the Water Music, notably unlike published scores, director Václav Luks follows Handel’s order of movements, which was discovered in 2004; this empowers Luks to drastically contrast timbres according to Handel’s strategised thinking. The string section’s distinctive dusky colours balance the glitter of wind players, whose impishness adds to the party mood.
Also important is that this project was conceived as a recording, rather than a concert, which means that acoustic effects could be meticulously mapped out through seating and mic placement. The production team also merits a shout-out. The wind-heavy mix in both works makes it notoriously tricky to achieve blend and balance, whether in performance or post-production.
This recording is not only elegantly mixed and mastered, but at times foregrounds inner voices unheard or muffled in previous recordings. A triumph.
