Academy of St Martin in the Fields

Sir Neville Marriner, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields – The Academy in Concert. Albinoni: Adagio – Pachelbel: Canon – Bach: Air & Music By Beethoven, Handel, Mendelssohn, Mozart (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:08:47 minutes | 2,45 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics

Few conductors can boast about such a wide and varied discography than Sir Marriner. The programme of The Academy in Concert features Marriner at the helm of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields as he tackles the works of Felix Mendelssohn, George Frideric Handel, Johann Pachelbel, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Tomaso Albinoni, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This release comes as part of Warner Classics’ monumental centenary series on Sir Neville Marriner!

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Academy of St. Martin in the Fields & Sir Neville Marriner – Haydn: The Seven Last Words, Hob. XX:1 (1977/2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 54:57 minutes | 1,64 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics

Originally recorded in 1977, this splendid re-release per of Haydn’s sacred masterpiece in its original fully orchestral version was never released as a CD or in digital, making it one of the highlights of our Marriner centenary jubilee!

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Academy of St. Martin in the Fields & Sir Neville Marriner – Handel: Oboe Concertos Nos. 1–3; Recorder Concertos (1965/2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 58:07 minutes | 641 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca Records

The Oboe Concerto No. 1 in B flat major (HWV 301) was composed by George Frideric Handel for oboe, orchestra and basso continuo. It was first published in the fourth volume of Select Harmony by Walsh in 1740. Other catalogues of Handel’s music have referred to the work as HG xxi, 85; and HHA iv/12,17. The Oboe Concerto No. 2 in B flat major (HWV 302a) was composed by George Frideric Handel for oboe, orchestra and basso continuo. It was first published in the fourth volume of Select Harmony by Walsh in 1740. Other catalogues of Handel’s music have referred to the work as HG xxi, 91; and HHA iv/12,47.

The Oboe Concerto No. 3 in G minor (HWV 287) was composed by George Frideric Handel for oboe, orchestra and basso continuo, possibly in 1704-1705, when he was still in Hamburg. It was first published in Leipzig in 1863 (from unknown sources) in which it was described as a work from 1703. No other source for the work is known. Other catalogues of Handel’s music have referred to the work as HG xxi, 100; and HHA iv/12,3.

The Sonata in F major (HWV 369) was composed (before 1712) by George Frideric Handel for recorder and basso continuo (the autograph manuscript, a fair copy made most likely in 1712, gives this instrumentation in Italian: “flauto e cembalo”). The work is also referred to as Opus 1 No. 11, and was first published in 1732 by Walsh. Other catalogues of Handel’s music have referred to the work as HG xxvii, 40; and HHA iv/3,52.

Handel used an arrangement of the sonata in his Organ Concerto in F major (HWV 293).

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Academy of St. Martin in the Fields & Sir Neville Marriner – Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks; Water Music (1972/2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:03:09 minutes | 663 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca Records

The Music for the Royal Fireworks (HWV 351) is a suite in D major for wind instruments composed by George Frideric Handel in 1749 under contract of George II of Great Britain for the fireworks in London’s Green Park on 27 April 1749. The music celebrates the end of the War of the Austrian Succession and the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) in 1748. The work was very popular when first performed and following Handel’s death.

The Water Music (German: Wassermusik) is a collection of orchestral movements, often published as three suites, composed by George Frideric Handel. It premiered on 17 July 1717, in response to King George I’s request for a concert on the River Thames.

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Academy of St. Martin in the Fields & Sir Neville Marriner – Handel: Messiah (1976/2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 02:20:19 minutes | 1,45 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca Records

Messiah (HWV 56) is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel. The text was compiled from the King James Bible and the Coverdale Psalter by Charles Jennens. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742 and received its London premiere a year later. After an initially modest public reception, the oratorio gained in popularity, eventually becoming one of the best-known and most frequently performed choral works in Western music.

Handel’s reputation in England, where he had lived since 1712, had been established through his compositions of Italian opera. He turned to English oratorio in the 1730s in response to changes in public taste; Messiah was his sixth work in this genre. Although its structure resembles that of opera, it is not in dramatic form; there are no impersonations of characters and no direct speech. Instead, Jennens’s text is an extended reflection on Jesus as the Messiah called Christ. The text begins in Part I with prophecies by Isaiah and others, and moves to the annunciation to the shepherds, the only “scene” taken from the Gospels. In Part II, Handel concentrates on the Passion of Jesus and ends with the Hallelujah chorus. In Part III he covers Paul’s teachings on the resurrection of the dead and Christ’s glorification in heaven.

Handel wrote Messiah for modest vocal and instrumental forces, with optional alternate settings for many of the individual numbers. In the years after his death, the work was adapted for performance on a much larger scale, with giant orchestras and choirs. In other efforts to update it, its orchestration was revised and amplified, such as Mozart’s Der Messias. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the trend has been towards reproducing a greater fidelity to Handel’s original intentions, although “big Messiah” productions continue to be mounted. A near-complete version was issued on 78 rpm discs in 1928; since then the work has been recorded many times.

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Academy of St. Martin in the Fields & Sir Neville Marriner – Handel: Jephtha (1979/2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 02:51:53 minutes | 1,74 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca Records

Jephtha (HWV 70) is an oratorio (1751) by George Frideric Handel with an English language libretto by the Rev. Thomas Morell, based on the story of Jephtha in Judges (Chapter 11) and Jephthes, sive Votum (Jeptha, or the Vow) (1554) by George Buchanan. Whilst writing Jephtha, Handel was increasingly troubled by his gradual loss of sight, and this proved to be his last oratorio. In the autograph score, at the end of the chorus “How dark, O Lord, are thy decrees” he wrote “Reached here on 13 February 1751, unable to go on owing to weakening of the sight of my left eye.”

The story revolves around Jephtha’s rash promise to the Almighty that if he is victorious, he will sacrifice the first creature he meets on his return. He is met by his beloved daughter Iphis. However, an angel intervenes to stop the sacrifice, and Iphis only needs to dedicate her life to the Lord. This is an unusual interpretation of the Bible story, although one which has been current since the Middle Ages. The more common interpretation is that Jephthah chooses to sacrifice his daughter, but a short reprieve is arranged, after which Iphis dutifully returns and is killed.

Staged performance of material based on biblical subjects was forbidden in Great Britain at the time the work was premiered. Handel’s final masterpiece was presented at Covent Garden Theatre on 26 February 1752, with the composer conducting, and with a cast that included John Beard as Jephtha and two divas of the opera stage, Giulia Frasi, Handel’s prima donna since 1749, and Caterina Galli. It was presented without scenery or costumes and divided into three acts.

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Academy of St. Martin in the Fields & Sir Neville Marriner – Handel: Coronation Anthems; Arias and Choruses (1985/2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:04:11 minutes | 658 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca Records

One of the lasts acts of King George I before his death in 1727 was to sign “An Act for the naturalizing of George Frideric Handel and others.” Handel’s first commission as a naturalized Britsh citizen was to write the music for the coronation later that year. The four anthems Handel composed for the coronation of King George II and Queen Caroline on 11 October 1727 have never lacked popular favour. They were repeatedly performed at concerts and festivals during his life and since, and he incorporated substantial parts of them, with little change except to the words, in several oratorios, notably Esther and Deborah. (Incidentally, two of them were performed at the opening concert of Oxford’s Holywell Music Room in 1748).

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Academy of St. Martin in the Fields & Sir Neville Marriner – Handel: Concerti a due cori; Concerto Grosso “Alexander’s Feast” (1978/2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:09:24 minutes | 747 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca Records

Handel’s focus in his three Concerti a due cori was on lively rhythms, arresting dialogue and vibrant colours, so his slow movements take something of a back seat, except here where he returned to Esther for a long, lilting siciliana in which the reedy oboes add a poignant edge to the movement’s lingering minor-key melancholy.

Alexander’s Feast (HWV 75) is an ode with music by George Frideric Handel set to a libretto by Newburgh Hamilton. Hamilton adapted his libretto from John Dryden’s ode Alexander’s Feast, or the Power of Music (1697) which had been written to celebrate Saint Cecilia’s Day. Jeremiah Clarke (whose score is now lost) set the original ode to music.

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Academy of St. Martin in the Fields & Sir Neville Marriner – Handel: Ballet Music (1972/2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 45:56 minutes | 479 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca Records

Handel wrote all this ballet music for operas, new or revived, in which Marie Salle was to dance while she was in London in the mid-1730s. She will not, of course, have graced all these pieces; she was famed for expressiveness rather than virtuosity, and presumably delegated the very quick and exciting dream music in Alcina to someone else. But slower pieces predominate and they show that Handel was fully appreciative of her charms. Gardiner uses a robust orchestra (6.6.4.4.2) which allows for a strong bass, appreciated by dancers today and no doubt then as well.

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Academy of St. Martin in the Fields & Sir Neville Marriner – Handel: Acis and Galatea (1978/2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:56:45 minutes | 1,19 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca Records

Acis and Galatea (HWV 49) is a musical work by George Frideric Handel with an English text by John Gay. The work has been variously described as a serenata, a masque, a pastoral or pastoral opera, a “little opera” (in a letter by the composer while it was being written), an entertainment and by the New Grove Dictionary of Music as an oratorio. The work was originally devised as a one-act masque which premiered in 1718.

Handel later adapted the piece into a three-act serenata for the Italian opera troupe in London in 1732, which incorporated a number of songs (still in Italian) from Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, his 1708 setting of the same story to different music. He later adapted the original English work into a two-act work in 1739.

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