COMPOSERS: Handel
LABELS: Teldec
WORKS: Concerti grossi, Opp. 3 & 6
PERFORMER: Concentus Musicus Wien/Nikolaus Harnoncourt
CATALOGUE NO: 4509-95500-2 ADD/DDD (1981/83)
Inflated contrasts, exaggerated tuttis, breathless phrases, angular harmonies, dislocated textures, puzzling tempo decisions. So anxious is Harnoncourt to purge this repertoire of corrupting 19th-/ early 20th-century performance traditions, that he ends up with an approach only marginally less offensive. Dynamically extreme, with ungratefully fierce, dry fortissimos, here is an account whose wilfulness, rhythmic assault and irascible silences border at times on caricature. Plenty of studio noise. No inlay notes. Ates Orga
Handel: Concerti grossi, Opp. 3 & 6
Inflated contrasts, exaggerated tuttis, breathless phrases, angular harmonies, dislocated textures, puzzling tempo decisions. So anxious is Harnoncourt to purge this repertoire of corrupting 19th-/ early 20th-century performance traditions, that he ends up with an approach only marginally less offensive. Dynamically extreme, with ungratefully fierce, dry fortissimos, here is an account whose wilfulness, rhythmic assault and irascible silences border at times on caricature. Plenty of studio noise. No inlay notes. Ates Orga
Our rating
3
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:33 pm