Handel Concerti grossi Op. 3, Sonata a 5

BEST OF 2007

“The playing throught is most excellent: clean, crisp, transparent, and flowing, but judiciously paced with natural phrasing and dynamics. The soloist are first-rate, the balance is exemplary.”

Egarr's Op.3 ranks among the best. He takes the listener's ears on a tour of Op.3's orchestral interiors. More than most recordings, on Egarr's the strings are kept from dominating the sound, to reveal a new range of shifting colors and highlights seconded by the slightly diffused, timbre-flattering acoustic of the London recording venue, St. John's, Smith Square.

The Academy of Ancient Music is in world-beating form once more with this magnificent Handel disc. Egarr and the musicians play with dynamism and warmth which suggests that Egarr's tenure with this band is going to be a rewarding one. Long may it last.

Sparkles with character and invention.

I can't think of a great deal that would improve this package: performances are stylish and polished; the recordings are a beauty; and Egarr's notes are exemplary.

"For those of us who have always secretly preferred the colourful, unruly and slightly raffish qualities of Op.3 to the staid perfection of Op.6 this magnificent recording is both a vindication and an unfailing delight."

"One of the nicest things about these performances is that Egarr makes no effort to homogenize what remains a wildly varied selection of movement types and formal structures. Just the opposite: he presents this music as a riot of color and individualized character. The whole production is superbly engineered and presented with Harmonia Mundi's usual care for every detail of production. It doesn't get any better."

A performance which is bold, confident, and revelling in the colours of the added wind-oboes, recorders, flute and a buzz of Baroque bassoons. Egarr provides a beautifully fluent organ 'improvisation'. Playing throughout is technically superb. The solo oboe and violin duet together in garlands of ornamentation with nonchalant, unstudied ease. Multi-channel reproduction bathes it in ambient resonance while retaining clarity across the three-dimensional aural stage. Not to be missed.

It's the first in a planned series of Handel recordings, and we can hope that all of them have this set's fresh, vibrant energy. The use of winds in these works was particularly novel, and the academy's players are superb throughout.