Händel – Concerti grossi opus 3, opus 6 / Concerto grosso ‘Alexanderfest’

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A huge boxed set, by the Münchener Bach-Orchester, conducted by Karl Richter. I have to add this like this, because I couldn’t find it on discogs. That doesn’t happen too often. There are recordings mentioned of parts of this recording, in different combinations. Not this one though.

I can add it to the list, sure, but I have nothing of this set. The records are there, all of them, a booklet is included, but I don’t have the box. I have no clue as to how it would have looked. So this time I am lazy, and I don’t add it. Sorry discogs (in 1996 they have been published on cd, and those are the recordings I have. So the link on Spotify is correct).

A concerto grosso is a concert where the music is passed between a small group of instruments acting like soloists on the one hand, and a full (baroque) orchestra on the other. It was developed in seventeenth century Italy, but they were still written in the eighteenth, like these ones (1739).

I used to like these very much. The music is very diverse, and has many colours. Listening to them now, I find them a bit stale. The sound is not as good as I was expecting, and that might have to do with the higher standards I’m used to nowadays.

This is a big box of six records, and I had trouble to get through them. A pity. Maybe modern performances are better?

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