Händel : Water Music, Music for the Royal Fireworks

Le Concert des Nations - Jordi Savall

Released on 09/06/1993 by Alia Vox
Main artists: Jordi Savall
Genre: Classical
Distinctions: The Qobuz Essential Discography

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For a long time Handel’s Water Music composed in 1717 was his most popular instrumental work, but we possess neither the autograph manuscript nor an authentic first edition approved by the composer. […]
Until the mid-20th century, the Water Music was heard particularly in modern arrangements and orchestrations by Sir Hamilton Harty. Since then, musicologists have managed, on the one hand, to distinguish the three suites, and, on the other, to rediscover the original orchestration. Nevertheless, the order of the movements is still uncertain, and it is quite licit to make the three suites overlap. Jordi Savall has arranged the movements in two suites, the one focussed on those in D and G, the other on the one in F. We can but admire Handel’s qualities as a cosmopolitan, eclectic artist in the Water Music, drawing impartially on German, Italian, French and English traditions.
The Music for the Royal Fireworks was written in 1748 to celebrate the signing of the peace treaty at Aix-la-Chapelle, which brought the War of the Austrian Succession to an end. In this war between Austria and Prussia, Britain supported Austria, and France and Spain were allied to Prussia. King George II, who was not exactly an outstanding leader in war, commanded that the event be celebrated with great festivities, crowned by an immense firework display, the latter being set up on a huge wooden structure (known as the “Machine”) erected in Green Park by the theatrical designer Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni. This structure, 410 feet long and 114 feet high, was completed on 26th April 1749, on the eve of the day the display was to take place. Handel had been commissioned to compose the music, and a raised gallery was built for the musicians, above a statue of Peace surrounded by a statue of Neptune and Mars and a low relief showing George II offering peace to Britannia. Suspended above all this was a sun, which caught fire on the night of the celebration, illuminating Green Park as if it was in broad daylight. […]
The work is in five movements: an Overture (other versions – in all probability later compositions – exist), followed by a Bourrée, a Sicilienne entitled "La Paix" (with virtuoso horn parts), an Allegro entitled "La Réjouissance", intended to be played three times (by trumpets, woodwind and strings, by horns and woodwind, and then by all the instruments together), and finally two Minuets (Minuet I being repeated after Minuet II).

Marc Vignal (translated by Mary Pardoe - Extracts from the booklet text)

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Händel : Water Music, Music for the Royal Fireworks

Jordi Savall

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