In the first of these two articles, I talked about the Grieg, Corelli and Haydn Brilliant Classics collections. In this article, I will present some notes on the Handel, Mozart, and Thomas Tallis collections. I also neglected to mention in part one that I had also acquired a box set of Telemann pieces, which I will try to include in this discussion.
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I have to admit up front, this wasn’t the best box for me to purchase. First, Thomas Tallis wrote mostly vocal works which is definitely not up my alley. Second, the works are religious in nature. For someone that is a pretty hard core atheist, listening to a lot of religious works isn’t necessarily all that appealing. And, third, there was my personal mistake: I thought Tallis was a Baroque period composer.
All of those things being said, the works on these recordings are good. I tried to work my way through the eight CD’s of vocal works, but I wasn’t able to listen to them all — however, I was able to sample each of them. I did listen to the two CD’s of Instrumental Music and Songs, and found them to be engaging.
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The four CD set of Tafelmusik and Musique De Table is an enjoyable listen, if not exactly the most demanding music. The Six Paris Quartets were a curiosity for me: I wanted to hear something that predated Haydn’s string quartets.
Telemann was definitely a prodigy, self taught on several instruments at an early age, and writing an Opera at the age of 12. He nearly gave up on music because of pressure his mother received from several people in the town where he grew up. Fortunately for the world, this was to change after meeting Handel.
The Tafelmusik is probably the best known piece by Telemann. However, it is rare to hear all three “productions” of the piece. For this alone, the Brilliant Classics box set is to be recommended. But, it’s also recommendable for an extremely fine performance by Musica Amphion. They manage to capture the variation between the movements of the piece beautifully, and impart the manner in which Telemann, always the musical fashionable person, composed the pieces.
When I purchased the Six Paris Quartets, I thought these were going to be similar to Haydn or Mozart string quartets. And, while they are chamber pieces, they definitely are different in terms of their instrumentation than the string quartets I am familiar with. These pieces typically use a continuo accompaniment along with varying lead instruments (such as a flute). Still, these are lovely pieces, and quite high examples of the Baroque style. The performances by Sonnerie are wornderfully mannered, and exemplify the style of the time period.
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Handel is quite well known for Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks, along with the Messiah oratorio. Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert as possibly some of the foremost interpreters of Baroque period pieces. The Orchestral Works recording doesn’t let the listener down. Starting with excellent interpretations of Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks and adding the Opus 3 and 6 Concerti Grossi, and the Concerto Grosso in C major. I was familiar with some of the Concerti Grossi from other sources, but the inclusion of the complete sets in this excellent interpretation has expanded my appreciation of the form significantly.
I can honestly say that I am not a major fan of the Baroque period keyboard works. They seem to be overly ornamented pieces that attempt to distract from the main work with their flourishes. I’ve personally become quite a bit more enamored of Bach’s keyboard works (like The Well Tempered Clavier). The performances by Michael Borgstede on Suites De Pieces Pour Le Clavecin might well serve to change my opinion of other Baroque period keyboard works. These are well performed on instruments that are appropriate to the compositions, and make a more solid argument for them than other recordings I have listened to. But, only time and multiple listenings will tell for certain.
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Obviously with a box set as large as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Complete Works I could not have possibly listened to the whole thing. In fact, I can say that I’ve barely dipped my pinky into the collection. I am relatively familiar with the Symphonies from the cycle I have by Christopher Hogwood and The Academy of Ancient Music. Comparison between the recordings would take some time make. However, I did feel that it And, I don’t have all that much of a taste for vocal works and Opera’s. So, I purchesed this set mostly for the chamber pieces. I have listened to some of the string quartets and other works, and have found them to be quite enjoyable.
Would I personally recommend purchasing such a large set of Mozart works? Probably not, unless either (a) you are someone that has an extreme love of everything Mozart, or (b) you want to have another complete set of Mozart recordings to use as the basis for comparison to other recordings. The only other argument I can make for this set is the price. As with the Haydn set, the value that you get for the price of the set is quite wonderful.
Conclusion
So, that’s it. I’m definitely not through all of these works at this point. I thnk it would have been literally impossible to listen to everything that I have purchased thus far. However, I have made it a priority to listen to several portions of these collections, and have several other portions on my list to work my way through.
And there is a footnote to this piece… Just after finishing writing this story, I found that set of Handel’s works has been delivered to my front door. Of course, this will allow me to delve back into the realm Handel again, and see if I can find some more appreciation for his works. Although, I may save this for a while as a good portion of this work is vocal and opera.
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