Side One
- Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks
- (Concerto Grosso in D major)
- Overture
- Bourée
- Largo alla Siciliana
- La Réjouissance
- Minuet I
- Minuet II
Side Two
- Handel: Concerto in F 'a due cori' No.2 in F
- Overture (Pomposo – Allegro)
- A tempo giusto
- Largo
- Allegro ma non troppo
- A tempo ordinario
- Concerto No.1 in F (ed. Mackerras)
- Concerto No.3 in D (ed. Mackerras)
London Symphony Orchestra
Sir Charles Mackerras Recorded at No.1 Studio, Abbey Road on 8 October and 19 December 1976 by legendary Producer Suvi Raj Grubb and Engineer Robert Gooch. SUPERIOR 180g AUDIOPHILE PRESSING
The late Sir Charles Mackerras was an extraordinarily versatile musician who could be relied on to give first class accounts of everything from Bach to Britten and was renowned as an interpreter of Mozart and Janacek. In 1959, the small British label Pye asked him to record Handel's 'Music for the Royal Fireworks' which was met with critical acclaim for 'attempting to reproduce the sound Handel would have heard'. Ever at the vanguard of authentic performance rather than authentic instruments, Mackerras took advantage of more modern recording techniques by re-recording the Handel at Abbey Road for EMI in 1976.
In the original 1977 review Robin Golding of the GRAMOPHONE wrote:
... for sheer splendour of sound the martial musick favoured by George II is hors concours; and, as fond as I am of the [Makerras's] old Pye recording, I have to admit that the new EMI one is even more thrilling ...