Coincidentally two
sets of Handel’s Op.5 Trio Sonatas have
come my way in the last few weeks. The
London
Handel Players recording is on Somm
and The Brook Street Band’s is an Avie
release. Both are very different. The
LHP employ an oboe for three of the
sonatas and a viola throughout whereas
the BSB keep to two violins, cello and
harpsichord/chamber organ. But the major
differences are ones of projection,
balance, sonority, tonal nuance, phraseology,
expressivity and, to be blunt, "getting
it across." This has something
to do with rhythmic life, to do with
acute accents and above all to do with
question of intimacy or more extrovert
projections. In all these questions
these are pretty much divergent recordings
and go to show that, whatever ones preferences,
a large range of viewpoints can be exercised
in this repertoire.
The Brook Street Band
are consummate extroverts; this is not
to imply a lack of qualities demanding
more intimate reflection but one’s overriding
impression is of total engagement and
passionate commitment. They make a big
sound, encouraged by Avie’s recording,
which can tend to the tiring in its
directness. But the gains are those
of zest and buoyancy, immediately apparent
in the Allegro of No.2 and the al fresco
quality they impart to the folksy Musette,
where the drone effect is pungently
realised and the Scottishry is unmistakeable.
The band decorate adeptly as well; big
gestures, big accents. Many of these
recycled movements, which derive from
Anthems, Concerto Grossi, oratorio and
opera may be familiar from the parent
work, or indeed from Beecham’s expert
plunder in the 1930s for his own Ballets
and orchestral suites derived from them.
That’s certainly the case with the March
of No.2 – and how well the BSB rip into
it. But Handel composed new music as
well and there’s always something well
worth hearing along the way.
They’re typically incisive
with the Fourth. Yes, there’s a lack
of really soft dynamics, but the playing’s
full of gusto; here the pauses are timed
to perfection and there’s fine tonal
contrast between the two fiddles, although
they do make an awful meal of the final
cadence of the opening movement. Colour,
motion, pretty deft interplay and fleet
tempi mark out more areas of excellence.
Maybe the Passacaille lacks commensurate
depth but it’s nicely argued nevertheless.
I’m not entirely sure as to the textual
validity of those plucked accompanying
voices under the solo violin in the
Minuet or the reprise of the Gigue at
the end of the sonata.
Still, they really
make the Fugato of the Fifth live and
are richly inviting in the Air. They
manage to be both forward moving and
yet also elastic with the melody of
the Seventh Sonata’s Larghetto and paint
its second movement with broad, invigorating
tonal brush strokes. As with everything
they do there are no half measures.
I find them intoxicating, sometimes
quixotic, but always entertaining guides
to the repertoire.
Jonathan Woolf
The Brook Street Band 
