180-gram vinyl cut from the original analogue EMI master tapes at Abbey Road Studios!

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 particular. He also often remade recordings of works associated with him over his long career, like his 1962 recording of "Pineapple Poll" — music by Sullivan he arranged into a ballet, and 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, rather than the smoother orchestral arrangements usually played at that time." The recording used some 26 oboes, creating an ensemble of over 70 players. 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, again with augmented wind band that Handel would have used for the original open air performance in Green Park.

Recorded at No.1 Studio, Abbey Road on October 8 and December 19, 1976. The producer was the legendary Suvi Raj Grubb and the engineer was Robert Gooch.

Cut at Abbey Road Studios from the original stereo analogue master tapes with the Neumann VMS82 lathe fed an analogue pre-cut signal from a specially adapted Studer A80 tape deck with additional "advance" playback head, ensuring a completely analogue process.

Track Listing
Concerto Grosso in D Major
Overture
Bouree
Largo alla Siciliana
La Rejouissance
Minuet I
Minuet II

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
Largo - Allegro

Concerto No. 3 in D
Largo - Allegro - Allegro ma non troppo