As I noted in my
review of The Brook Street Band’s recording
of these trio sonatas both traversals
arrived on my desk within the same week.
The main difference between them is
that the London Handel Players employ
an oboe for three of the sonatas (Nos.1,
3 and 6) and a viola whereas the BSB
keep to two violins, cello and harpsichord/chamber
organ throughout. The Op.5 set is generally
derived from pre-existing music taken
from Concerti Grossi, Anthems, oratorio
and opera though there is certainly
some newly composed music. Originally
written for two violins or German flutes
the Somm team has decided on variety
and so Rachel Brown takes the honours
as flautist in those three sonatas,
which she does with conspicuous artistry
and tonal imagination.
These are well-shaped
and thoroughly elegant performances,
more recital hall in character than
The Brook Street Band’s more al fresco
and dynamic incursions. Dynamics are
equable but subtle, phrases are gently
cantilevered; and corporate tonal nuances
are attended to. They promote optimum
clarity and manage to retain considerable
control over tempo relations, so that
very little seems amiss. Set against
the BSB however and the London Handel
Players can seem rather sedate; the
former’s outsize drama can make the
lucid but constrained elegance of the
LHP seem reserved or non-committal,
when it’s not actually the case.
Certainly the drone
effects of the Musette of No.2 are far
more sharply, indeed rudely etched in
the case of The Brook Street Band’s
performance. Overall the LHP steer a
far more reserved and patrician route
through these trio sonatas; their colour
(March of No.2) and elegance are palpable
however and they come within bowing
distance of The BSB’s tempo. The latter’s
articulation and accents are that much
deeper however and their tempos seem
much faster through the sheer dynamism
of their playing. That said I prefer
the more sensible final cadences of
the second movement of No.4 in the LHP’s
hands; the BSB really go to town on
it.
I also prefer the Somm
team’s control of the melancholy rhetoric
embedded in No.5 where they really do
mine the operatic intensities on show,
though indisputably they do sound rather
earnest in the same sonata’s A tempo
giusto fourth movement, especially
in contrast with the BSB’ very personal
vein of extrovert immediacy.
In the end choice will
depend on the textual decisions made,
whether to embrace the flute-led trio
sonatas of the Somm or to stick to the
unvarying instrumentation of the Avie.
And whether one prefers the smooth and
rather elegant precision of the LHP
to the cut and thrust of the BSB. The
version that makes these works live
more dangerously is the Avie and that
recording is rich in personality and
intimate drama. But if you prefer a
more patrician and easy going geniality
the London Handel Players, recorded
well in a Walthamstow church, will give
pleasure.
Jonathan Woolf
London Handel Players 
