Sunday Classics preview: Hitting some highlights of Handel's "Water Music"

This is the first part of Sir Hamilton Harty's own 1933 recording of the suite -- played, as we see, from original 78s (unfortunately with some outer-groove damage) -- he arranged from Handel's Water Music: the opening Allegro, the Air [beginning at 3:30, conclusion at 4:41], and the Bourrée [at 8:12]. We'll have the conclusion in the click-through.

by Ken

Last night we previewed Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks, listening to the three middle movements (out of the total five). The Water Music is considerably more extended; the three suites that comprise it, normally identified by their key signature,are generally reckoned as totaling 20 movements 11 in the F major Suite, five in the D major, and four in the G major.

We're going to hear the whole thing tomorrow. For tonight's preview I thought we would follow the lead of Sir Hamilton Harty, first listening to his six-movement Water Music Suite and then tracking back to the original Handel movements he drew on.

I know we did the historical background of the Fireworks Music in last night's preview, and logically we should do the same for the Water Music tonight. The music clips for this post were a bitch, though, and I hate that historical-background stuff, so tonight let's just have music. I suppose we'll have to get to that stuff tomorrow. (You can always look it up yourself in Wikipedia. I've got a feeling that's what I'm going to wind up doing.)


TO PROCEED TO TONIGHT'S PREVIEW OF
HANDEL'S WATER MUSIC, CLICK HERE

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