Composer: George Frideric Handel, Georg Philipp Telemann
Performer: Alfredo Bernardini, Zefiro
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Arcana
Catalogue: A432
Release: 2017
Size: 401 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Handel: Water Musick, Suite No. 1 in F Major, HWV 348
01. I. Overture – Adagio e staccato
02. II. [Allegro]
03. III. Andante
04. IV. [Allegro]
05. V. [Passepied]
06. VI. Air
07. VII. Bourrée
08. VIII. [Andante]
09. IX. Hornpipe
10. X. Menuet 1 & 2
Telemann: Ouverture “Wassermusik” in C Major, TWV 55:C3
11. I. Ouverture
12. II. Sarabande. Die schlaffende Thetis
13. III. Bourrée. Die erwachende Thetis
14. IV. Loure. Der verliebte Neptunus
15. V. Gavotte. Die verliebte Amphitrite
16. VI. Harlequinade. Der schertzende Tritonus
17. VII. Der stürmende Aeolus
18. VIII. Menuet. Der angenehme Zephir
19. IX. Gigue. Ebbe und Flut
20. X. Canarie. Die lustigen Bots-leute
Handel: Water Musick, Suite No. 2 in D Major & Suite No. 3 in G Major, HWV 349-350
21. I. [Allegro]
22. II. [Hornpipe]
23. III. [Sarabande]
24. IV. Aria 1 & 2
25. V. Menuet 1 & 2
26. VI. [Gigue 1 &2]
27. VII. [Bourrée]
28. VIII. Lentement
29. IX. Coro
Zefiro has already proved its strong affinity with Georg Philipp Telemann’s music, and the ensemble’s recording of his Ouvertures a 8 (Arcana A371) was awarded a Gramophone Editor’s Choice.
As Julie Anne Sadie pointed out, ‘the much-vaunted lean muscularity of the Ensemble Zefiro performances favours the wind instruments and, when joined with one-to-a-part strings, produces a freshly balanced sonority that alters our experience of these works’. The 250th anniversary of Telemann’s death offers now a neat incentive to re-release this successful recording – originally issued on the Ambroisie label – on which his Wassermusik, generally referred to as Hamburg Ebb and Flow, is coupled with Handel’s more familiar aquatic suites. Both are occasional pieces composed within a few years of each other, the former written to celebrate the centenary of the Admiralty in Hamburg, and the latter for royal water parties on the Thames. Unlike Handel’s work, Telemann’s suite attempts to evoke images of water, aided by references in the titles to scenes and characters associated with the sea, and may therefore be considered as ‘programme music’.