Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks, HWV351 - CD

“One doesn’t much think of Handel when considering Wand and indeed, we only hear the Overture from the Music for the Royal Fireworks, a performance which, once past an uneasy downbeat, has a deal of stretchy phraseology in the lentemente section and a nourished string tone throughout.” MusicWeb International, 6th May 2013

“Zefiro play the grand Ouverture with the perfect synthesis of splendour and dance-like charisma… "La réjouissance" trips along lightly without a hint of clumsiness, but still has ample juicy magnificence. There are several other good recordings available, but this zesty and fluid performance is a welcome change from stodgy readings in which everything is hammered home mercilessly. Zefiro bring a marvellous sense of light and shade to this music. Zefiro also perform all three of the Concerti per due cori... These shapely performances are phrased and paced to perfection... This is one of the most enjoyable discs of Handel's orchestral music to have come my way in a long time...” Gramophone Magazine, August 2009

“What makes the disc into a must-hear is the pairing with the three Concerto a due cori, Handel's last, ebullient recycling of "greatest hits" from his operas and Italian cantatas.” The Independent on Sunday, 19th July 2009

“What the Italian wind-based orchestra Zefiro, led by oboist Alfredo Bernardini, achieve here is remarkable, giving these ceremonial masterpieces an expressive lilt and rounded warmth - no relentless rhythms, but perky dances, gracious phrasing and, in the famous fireworks music, an unexpected depth of emotion.” The Observer, 2nd August 2009

“…once past the curious opening… the players want for nothing in immediacy or colour. They contrive majesty without pomposity, and there's a deal of gleeful thrusting in the confrontational face-offs which animate the Allegro continuation. The easeful suavity of the 'Bourrée' neatly counterpoints the arcadian lilt of 'La paix', while the two concluding menuets are appealingly crisp and... Laced with infectious swagger, the three Concerti a due cori... provide an inspired and inspiring coupling.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2009 ***

“The Italian ensemble Zefiro, directed by oboist Alfredo Bernardini, specialise in 18th-century music that gives prominence towards wind instruments. This lends itself to Handel's Musicfor the Royal Fireworks, written for the public celebrations of the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in London's Green Park (1749). Zefiro play the grand Ouverture with the perfect synthesis of splendour and dance-like charisma (too many versions possess too little of the latter). 'La réjouissance' trips along lightly without a hint of clumsiness, but still has ample juicy magnificence.
There are several other good recordings available, but this zesty and fluid performance is a welcome change from stodgy readings in which everything is hammered home mercilessly.
Zefiro bring a marvellous sense of light and shade to this music. Maybe Bernardini's sparkling and communicative approach would have been too subtle for the great British outdoors in 1749, but it is curious that this beautifully engineered recording was made outside in the cloisters of a former Jesuit college in Sicily.
Zefiro also perform all three of the Concerti perdue cori (1747-48) that Handel arranged for orchestra and two 'choirs' of woodwind and brass. These were intended as entr'actes in oratorio concerts, and it is fun to play 'name that tune'.
These shapely performances are phrased and paced to perfection, and exploit an enjoyable range of instrumental colours (whether oboe trios or bucolic horns, almost everything here feels right). This is one of the most enjoyable discs of Handel's orchestral music in a long time.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“This recording recreates the scale of [the] original outdoor performance with 24 oboes, nine each of horns and trumpets, a dozen bassoons, and a mighty percussion of four pairs of timpani including a unique pair of extra-large ‘double drums’ and four side-drummers. The effect is shattering, the clearest justification for ‘authenticity’ in performance” BBC Music Magazine Top 1000 CDs Guide (on Musick for the Royal Fireworks)

“The King’s Consort makes Handel’s music dance … the whole thing is toe-tappingly infectious” Classic CD (on Water Music)

“A rewarding programme, imaginatively realised and played with panache. Strongly recommended” Gramophone Magazine (on Water Music)

“It's unlikely that George I ever witnessed performances that live up to this one. They are sparkling; tempos are well judged and there's a truly majestic sweep to the opening F major French overture; that gets things off to a fine start but what follows is no less compelling with some notably fine woodwind playing, so often the disappointing element in performances on period instruments.
In the D major music it's the brass department that steals the show and here, horns and trumpets acquit themselves with distinction. Archiv Produktion has achieved a particularly satisfying sound in which all strands of the orchestral texture can be heard with clarity. In this suite the ceremonial atmosphere comes over particularly well, with resonant brass playing complemented by crisply articulated oboes.
The G major pieces are quite different from those in the previous groups, being lighter in texture and more closely dance-orientated.
They are among the most engaging in the WaterMusic and especially, perhaps, the two little 'country dances', the boisterous character of which Pinnock captures nicely.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“They play on period instruments with great zest, especially so in the Fireworks Music. Speeds are consistently well choen. One test is the famous 'Air', which here remains an engagingly gentle piece.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“An outstanding disc which I foolishly overlooked back in 1993, not realising Savall et al. were such fine Handelians; it sounds spectacular now, remastered from stereo to effective but not overblown multi-channel SACD.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2008 *****

“Over the night of 13-14 April 1959 in St Gabriel's Church, Cricklewood, a recording session took place, historic in every way, when the young Charles Mackerras conducted a band of 62 wind players plus nine percussionists in Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks. With no fewer than 26 oboists topping the ensemble, it was only possible to assemble such a band after all concerts and operas had finished for the day.
They began at 11pm and finished at 2.30 in the morning, yet so far from sounding tired or jaded, the players responded to the unique occasion with a fizzing account of Handel's six movements.
The success of this extraordinary project fully justified Mackerras's determination to restore the astonishing array of instruments that Handel himself had assembled for the original performance in Green Park in April 1749.
It's thrilling to hear that 1959 recording, at last transferred to CD, with sound that's still of demonstration quality, full and spacious, with a wide stereo spread. It's true that Mackerras takes the introduction to the overture and the 'Siciliana' at speeds far slower than he would choose today, but this was a recording which marked a breakthrough in what later developed as the period performance movement.
As a coupling for the Fireworks Music, Mackerras devised a composite Concerto a due cori which draws on two works written with that title around 1747. It makes a splendid piece, in which the massed horns bray gloriously.
Whatever the degree of authenticity, this is an electrifying collection, superbly transferred.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010