Trevor

Simon Preston's recordings of the complete set of Handel's organ concertos with Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert was the first to use the latest musicological research by Anthony Hicks. These recordings remain unsurpassed from a scholarly point of view, and the performances themselves remained a benchmark for at least a decade. They may not be the best versions available now but still have a lot to offer. Preston's performances are alert and still sound very vibrant and strong, yet it must be confessed that the rather harsh sound of Preston's instrument in Opus 7 verges on becoming joyless at times.

For me this reading of the Trumpet Concerto is as close to ideal as possible. Bennett and Pinnock find a balance in this music that other interpreters invariably distort, one way or another. Maurice Andre, for all his attractive tone and phrasing, is unidiomatic as he tends to make these three movements into concert aria showpieces; Herseth and Solti, with the powerhouse Chicago Symphony, turn it into Mahler-lite; Marsalis and Leppard are overstated, the orchestral texture is opaque, and Marsalis for his part doesn't grasp the architecture of this music, distracted as he is by his concern to demonstrate his considerable virtuosity…

This disc brings together recordings made in the 1980's as part of a reduction of three original discs down to two. At the same time, the original fine recordings have been remastered to good effect with added depth and space. This makes a particularly important improvement to the Coronation Anthems which previously came over as sonically lacking ideal breadth, depth and recorded weight in Zadok. The ears adjusted after that.

Jeremy Beck (b. 1960) has an approachable knack for the orchestra that is more sirloin than meatloaf. With the intensity of international diva Rayanne Dupuis and the Slovak Radio Orchestra’s committed playing, Beck’s tragic themes come to life with a rich patina.
When George Bush Sr. delivered the 1992 State of the Union address, Jeremy Beck didn’t buy it. He wrote an impassioned orchestra piece to express his rage…..