Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39271 in Digital Music Album
• Released on: 2005-08-18
• Running time: 9404 seconds

Customer Reviews

Baroque splendor
This is a great recording of Handel's glorious op. 6 concerti. These players produce such an array of tone color that you forget that they're playing period strings. These performances are polished and exhibit impeccable intonation, with sweet-toned soloists and massed string textures standing out in terraced relief. Musically, these performances are most sensitive, as well, and the overall result is rich in grandeur and classic profile. It's worth noting that this complete set fits onto two discs instead of the usual three but the playing is uplifting and spirited rather than rushed. Beautifully recorded, too.

A recording of the century...really!
Manze has outdone himself, as have the Academy of Ancient Music.

There is life, there is magic, there is some beautiful playing, there is everything you could possibly want in a recording of this wonderful score. Even if you forego period instruments, you should really try these guys out! Forget Orpheus's attempt, and please ignore the bizarre recommendation for I Musici de Montreal on Chandos (great sound and cold playing). This recording really puts all those to shame.

To top it all off, not only do you have wonderful music-making, but you also get intelligent and delightful notes that are humorous too.

A first-class production. Maybe the classical music recording industry isn't dead quite yet!

Well Worth Having in Your Collection
Like Corelli's Op 6 concerti, every lover of Baroque music must also have
have at least one recording of Handel's Op 6 in his collection. This version, played by the Academy of Ancient music, along with another performed by The English Consort are my two favorites.

This is a very energetic performance. Andrew Manze has uniformly chosen
brisk tempi through these concerti. Things are never too rushed, though. Clarity of expression and melodic lines always come out clearly, but I sometimes wonder why some movements are taken so quickly. Perhaps it might be to cut down track lengths? I hope that is not the case. At any rate, it's a small matter considering the energy and ornamentation the soloists put into parts, even striking double and triple stops at the end of exciting solo passages. The contrast between soloist and ensemble is nicely brought out in this recording. That all makes for an exciting listening experience, and sets this recording apart from others that might be considered as more formal and polished performances.

I chose the digital download option for this purchase and was very pleasantly surprised at how smoothly the process went. After the downloader was installed, the tracks came down extremely quickly. So fast, in fact, I paused the download to look in the folder and see if the tracks were really there! The entire two CD set was done in under two minutes.The results in 225 VRB sound really great.

My only concern about the digital download is that while track number information is put into the files so that the Windows Media Player sorts out the correct track order, the filenames themselves will not cause the files to organize correctly in folders, hence, also not on my MP3 player, which does not use the track number data in the file. I either have to create playlists, or rename the files with 01...,02..., headers. Maybe
I need another Mp3 player!

Digital or CD, This recording is well worth the purchase price. Just listen to the samples. You will know what you are getting.