Octo_Russ

Handel - Water Music Suites [Marriner-Academy Of Saint Martin In The Fields]

In the early days of listening to Classical music, i used to love the power and invention of these suites, well now maybe i've changed, this music i still enjoy immensely, but now i find a 'suite' of music just that, a bunch / collection of pieces that don't actually make up some sort of 'symphonic' whole [ok, it's not a Symphony], but they're individual pieces that are just a collection of nice music, but isn't saying anything as a 'whole', plus these suites all added up are quite long, my attention slightly drifts in the third suite [which is the least strong], but hey, it made it into my daily highlight!.

It was only a week ago that i wrote about Neville Marriner's Rossini Overtures [11th November 2010], and a bit of a biography will suffice there, but this guy gets around, there's 9 entries for him in my Blog this year.

I like these Philips Insignia discs, they always have an excellent front cover shot [this one by Fritz Curzon], they are lovely crisp sharp shots, with a plain background, and a nice box with the lettering in, very well laid out, it's nice when a Record Label makes a nice series that's worth collecting.

In my mind the best suite is the second one, it's full of good tunes, a lovely stately Minuet [track 11], and a robust Bourree finale [track 13], but it's the famous Alla Hornpipe [track 10] that gets me every time, deep down it's a very simple structure, a one minute piece stated twice, and then a different 'trio' section, then a return to the opening stated once, four simple one minute building blocks, the opening is a stately and grand fanfare for full orchestra [0:00-0:16], and then restated by the trumpets alone, in true fanfare fashion [0:16+], this is the most exuberant part of the piece, somehow i just love blazing fanfares!, the horns respond right after echoing the trumpets [0:22+], this fanfare is then played around by orchestra, trumpets, horns, and strings in a lovely merry-go-round, the whole thing is restated again [1:02-2:04], then comes the trio section, which gives some variety [2:05-3:01], and of course the reprise of the original start finishes off the piece [3:01-4:08], with a noble ending to finish things off, very inspiring, regal and majestic.

Here's Marriner playing the second suite on YouTube, the Alla Hornpipe starts at 2:07.