Water Music arranged by Hamilton Harty (1879–1941)

Allegro

Air

Bourrée

Hornpipe

Andante espressivo

Allegro deciso

The splendid arrangement of pieces selected from Handel’s Water Music by Sir Hamilton Harty, conductor of the Hallé Orchestra from 1920 to 1933, is rarely heard these days. Fifty or sixty years ago, however, before it was banished from the concert hall by the demand for period authenticity in baroque music, the Water Music was heard far more often in this form than any other. It is true, of course, that clarinets, which did not exist in Handel’s time, do not really belong here. On the other hand, Harty’s imaginative scoring – like the horn fanfares in the ceremonial opening and closing movements, the tender violins in the Air, the lightly dancing strings in the Bourrée, the agile woodwind in the Hornpipe, the sensitive instrumental colouring in the melodious Andante espressivo – is highly attractive in its own right. The original version of the Water Music, consisting of three suites scored for different ensembles, was first performed at an extravagant water party on the Thames attended by George I and his court in the summer of 1717.