Suite No. 1 in F Major

Handel’s Water Music was written for a royal river party on the Thames in 1717 and belongs to an essentially French tradition of outdoor music. Deliberately popular in style, it relies on the appeal of sturdy dance tunes and military-style orchestration. On the basis of key and scoring, it actually breaks down into three suites: in F major, calling for oboes, bassoons, and horns alongside the strings; in D major, with the addition of trumpets; and in G major/minor, where the strings are joined simply by a flute, recorder and bassoon. The F major suite is the longest and opens with an arresting French overture, leading to what sounds like the slow movement of an oboe concerto. It’s followed by the first of the truly outdoor pieces where, for perhaps the first time, a pair of horns appeared in an English orchestra—their antiphonal bantering and fanfares lending the music its regal air. The D major suite and G major suite are interspersed, contrasting brassy movements—the trumpet overture and ensuing hornpipe—with more intimate dances, like the lilting G major “Sarabande” for flute and strings. It’s in chamber pieces like this that we hear Handel at his most popular and rustic—quirkily so in the final dances, to which he adds a squeaky high recorder.