Rock Bands & Pop Stars
Georg Friedrich Händel Pictures
Artist:
Georg Friedrich Händel
Origin:
Germany, HalleGermany
Born date:
February 23, 1685
Death date:
April 14, 1759
Georg Friedrich Händel Album: «Water Music / Royal Fireworks Music»
Georg Friedrich Händel Album: «Water Music / Royal Fireworks Music» (Front side)
    Album information
  • Customers rating: (5.0 of 5)
  • Title:Water Music / Royal Fireworks Music
  • Release date:
  • Type:Audio CD
  • Label:
  • UPC:
Customers rating
Track listing
  • 1Music For The Royal Fireworks: Overture (adagio, allegro)
  • 2Music For The Royal Fireworks: Boureé
  • 3Music for the Royal Fireworks: La Paix
  • 4Music For The Royal Fireworks: La Réjouissance
  • 5Music For The Royal Fireworks: Menuet & Trio
  • 6The Water Music: Overture
  • 7The Water Music: Adagio e staccato
  • 8The Water Music: Allegro in 3/4
  • 9The Water Music: Air
  • 10The Water Music: Minuet I
  • 11The Water Music: Bourée
  • 12The Water Music: Hornpipe
  • 13The Water Music: Andante in D minor
  • 14The Water Music: Allegro
  • 15The Water Music: Bourée
  • 16The Water Music: Alla Hornpipe
Review - Amazon.com
Handel wrote the original score of the Royal Fireworks Music for an absolutely crazy assortment of winds, brass and percussion: 21 oboes, 21 bassoons, 9 horns, 9 trumpets, 3 snare drums, and several sets of timpani (including extra large ones called double timpani). Until the mid-1960s or so, no one had any idea what this sort of thing sounded like. Then Charles Mackerras and Johannes Somary, each for different labels, got together just about every spare wind and brass player in London and decided to find out. The result is this absolutely sensational frolic that will surely have your neighbors running for cover. It's a blast. Literally. --David Hurwitz
Customer review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
- Tons of Fun

This "Fireworks" really DOES have fireworks. Every gesture is grand, the sound is terrific (you can almost feel the whacks on the side drums), and you get the feeling Somary told the horns he didn't want to hear anything less than a mezzo-forte. A friend of mine (a classical violinist) can't stand it, but everyone who's tired of hearing oh-so-proper performances of Baroque music will enjoy it. This is one of those turn-up-the volume-and-tell-your-friends-"hey, guys, listen to this!" albums.

Makes me wish Handel had scored the "Water Music" the same way. Somary uses a more traditional scoring here, with strings, and although the performance is robust, I don't listen to it nearly as much as the "Fireworks".

Customer review
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
- Original Score

One of the bests ! I heard this CD when I was trying to find a Handel Coronation Anthems CD and this recording was love at the first sight. The English Chamber Orchestra conducts this work in Original Score.