Anyone shopping for Handel's Water Music should look for albums that have the three suites in F major, D major, and G major together, and be leery of any that offer less. While
Helmut Koch's 1969 recordings with the
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra of Water Music are enjoyable, they present only the first and second suites, and the available space on this disc is filled with a 1974 performance of the Music for the Royal Fireworks. Even though this compromise may be acceptable to casual listeners and those with severely restricted budgets, the loss of the third Water Music suite makes it a poor deal, and true Handel fans would be wise to spend the extra cash to get a complete set of Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks, since these works are often paired on affordable twofers. Considering that
Koch's interpretations are reasonably "authentic," in light of the scholarship of the time, and capably played, few will find these performances objectionable. The disc's sound quality is quite clean and realistic for analog recordings, so this album isn't a total write-off. But with so many first-rate, historically informed recordings of these works on the market, lavished with the best all-digital sound, there really is no reason to settle for this incomplete ADD reissue.