Eloquence Classics

While Handel’s Concerti Grossi are much performed and recorded, the exquisite Oboe Concertos and the grand Concerti a due cori are unfairly neglected. Bringing together both these sets of concerti, this generous 2CD set presents Neville Marriner’s Decca recordings of the former (one of his first) and Philips recordings of the latter. Included too, are the Overture in D and the Concerto Grosso in C which acts as a curtain-raiser to ‘Alexander’s Feast’. Other curtain-raisers are the ubiquitous ‘Arrival of the Queen of Sheba’ and the tri-partite ‘Berenice’ overture. But of immense interest to the collector will be Marriner’s Argo disc of ‘ballet music’ – overtures and orchestral interludes from ‘Alcina’, ‘Ariodante’ and ‘Il pastor fido’, appearing complete for the first time on CD.