Handel: Concerto grosso, Op. 6 No. 6 in G minor, HWV324

“They must surely be one of the finest baroque ensembles now in existence.” Early Music News

“This is exemplary baroque string playing, and at its most tasteful.” The Consort

The Avison Ensemble is an outstanding period instrument orchestra who has been performing together for nearly 25 years. The Ensemble, directed by Pavlo Beznosiuk, gives a fresh and insightful performance of George Frideric Handel’s masterpiece Concerti Grossi Opus 6.

This recording encompasses Handel’s complete Concerti Grossi Opus 6, a work widely thought to be the definitive example of the concerto grosso and one of the composer's greatest contributions to the Baroque period.

Under the masterful direction of Pavlo Beznosiuk the Ensemble’s enviable precision and musical rapport is evident.

The period ensemble creates dazzling colour, the tones and textures bringing this popular Baroque masterpiece to life.

Formed in 1985, the Ensemble has attracted great critical acclaim. The Guardian commented: “I’d take the Avison Ensemble over Karajan…any day”.

The Avison Ensemble comprises some of Europe's leading baroque musicians, including artists from The Hague, Germany, France, Austria and London, with international soloists from all over the globe.

Pavlo Beznosiuk, the UK's foremost baroque violin virtuoso, is in demand as a soloist and orchestral leader performing regularly with the Academy of Ancient Music and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

This triple Hybrid SACD set features all twelve of George Frideric Handel’s Concerti Grossi opus 6. It is performed by one of the most acclaimed period instrument groups on the current musical scene, the Combattimento Consort, Amsterdam under the direction of its founder Jan Willem de Vriend.

The conductor Jan Willem de Vriend’s international profile has leapt recently with a muchadmired set of Beethoven Symphonies for Challenge (CC72550). Having studied the violin at the conservatories of Amsterdam and Den Haag, de Vriend went on to found the Combattimento Consort Amsterdam in 1982. In his capacity as violinist and artistic director of this ensemble he has conducted numerous concerts and opera productions both in the Netherlands and abroad. The Consort’s repertoire concentrates on the period 1600-1800, not only familiar works but also lesser-known masterpieces, which are often only available in manuscript form. In 2007 they presented Arminio, Biber’s only surviving opera. Over the years, they have developed a distinctive style of playing, which has even come to be known as the “Combattimento School” of performance.

The creative riches of structure and the broad diversity of styles that Handel exhibits in the 12 Concerti Grossi opus 6, HWV319-330, has led to them being considered alongside Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos as one of the great monuments of Baroque instrumental music. First published in London in 1739, they take the works of Arcangelo Corelli as models, and are scored for a concertino trio of two violins and cello, alongside a four-part string orchestra and harpsichord continuo.

Handel spent the years 1707-10 in Italy, and he learned much from the composer and violinist Arcangelo Corelli during that period. Corelli developed the concerto grosso form into the major genre for concertante instruments and orchestra. This later evolved to beget the sinfonia concertante, of which Beethoven’s Triple Concerto was a late example.

Handel not only took Corelli’s model and sequence of movements, he also had absorbed much from the French school of orchestral writing, especially the music of Lully. Handel had already composed the 6 concertos Op.3, and by the time he came to compose the 12 concertos Op.6 in 1739 his circumstances were very different to the heady days of the Op.3 set. He had suffered a series of operatic disasters, and was at war with the notoriously partisan operatic establishment in London. On top of this, he suffered a severe stroke. He made a speedy and miraculous recovery, and plunged back into the operatic fray, and produced the oratorios Saul and Israel in Egypt.

What is remarkable is that despite such turmoil, he managed to compose all 12 of the Op.6 set of concertos during the month of October 1739. This set and those that Bach wrote for the Margrave of Brandenburg are justly renowned as the twin peaks of the Barock concerto; for their elegance, variety, poetry and exuberance.

Recordings made in 1987-89.

"Il Giardino Armonico are as Italian as the music itself… brightly coloured, individualistic, confident, stylish, arrestingly decorated, bubbling with enthusiasm." Gramophone

Multi award-winning period performance ensemble Il Giardino Armonico, led by the charismatic and inspiring Giovanni Antonini, make their first appearance on the newly invigorated L'Oiseau Lyre label with a wonderful new recording of Handel's 12 Concerti Grossi op. 6 to mark the composer's anniversary year (2009).

Handel's Concerti Grossi, op. 6 are one of the pillars of Baroque orchestral music. Il Giardino Armonico takes a characteristically dramatic and instinctively Italian view of the music (Handel did after all hone his compositional skills in Italy before settling in England). The group hopes to reclaim Handel for Italy by exploring some of the unique qualities that their native temperament can bring to the music.

Il Giardino Armonico's pioneering approach to Baroque music has garnered many plaudits, and their ground-breaking Four Seasons was revolutionary: "I have reviewed more than 40 versions of The Four Seasons over the years, but a few of the recent ones have still managed to bring ear-catching freshness to them - and none more than this one." Gramophone on The Four Seasons. Their famous collaboration with Cecilia Bartoli in 'The Vivaldi Album' was an unprecedented success and brought lesser known music by this Italian master to millions.

The collaboration with Il Giardino Armonico is set to continue in April 2009 with the release of Baroque masterpieces on the theme of The Virgin's Lament. The key work on this new disc is Il Pianto di Maria, performed by Bernada Fink.

Composed during a few hectic weeks in the autumn of 1739, the set was partly intended by Handel – renowned mainly as a writer for singers and as an organist – to reinforce his stature as an instrumental composer.

The result is music that exhibits a great variety of musical thought and invention, here interpreted by the highly acclaimed Polish ensemble Arte dei Suonatori making their third recording for BIS. The recordings are the fruit of a regular collaboration between the ensemble and French conductor Martin Gester, focusing on the baroque concerto.

As America’s oldest professional musical organisation, the Boston, Massachusetts-based Handel and Haydn Society, founded in 1815, boasts a venerable history that includes the Stateside premieres of Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s B Minor Mass, and Haydn’s Creation. Their modern-day legacy was sealed by a path-breaking series of recordings with former Music Director Christopher Hogwood. Together with the release of Haydn Arias and Cantatas with the late, legendary soprano Arleen Auger (AV 2066), this re-issue of Handel’s Concerti Grossi mines the best of the Handel & Haydn Society’s back catalogue, making them available again to a public where there is clearly still considerable demand. Op. 3 and Op. 6, performed on period instruments, are newly compiled and released together for the first time on this 3 CD set.