Händel: Water music (2LP)

Concerto Köln, praised for stirring music-making on original instruments and last year awarded the Klassik-Echo as "best ensemble", presents a spectacular new recording of the complete Water Music by George Frideric Handel. This music, composed for a royal boat trip on the London Thames, is not for nothing among the most popular music of the Baroque, because only rarely have so many melodies of a single work become engraved in the collective musical memory. It is a specialty of the Cologne musicians to approach even supposedly well-known repertoire in a completely unbiased way and to find their own, always lively approach. This also and especially applies to this "Water Music", which undoubtedly has what it takes to set new standards on original instruments. But Concerto Köln would not be Concerto Köln if there were not also something to discover here: as an encore, two almost unknown symphonies can be heard.