The Grand Tour

The Grand Tour

The Grand Tour was a fashionable way for young 18th century aristocrats — mainly British — to broaden their minds. To travel across Europe and gain exposure to its wide ranging views, ideas, art and customs, was considered a finishing element of a proper education....
Bach : Ouvertures – Suites

Bach : Ouvertures – Suites

Many of Bach’s familiar works have had more than one incarnation, and his suite overtures are no exception. They were probably performed at the time as chamber works, with one musician per part. They are performed here in versions in which the second, third and...
Bach Burlesque “between coffee and beer”

Bach Burlesque “between coffee and beer”

Cantatas BWV 211 & 212 The first, written for the entertainment of customers at the famous Café Zimmermann, and the other, written for the birthday party of Carl Heinrich von Dieskau, Lord, landowner and tax collector near Leipzig — Bach’s “Coffee” and “Peasant”...
Rameau & Couperin “en concerts”

Rameau & Couperin “en concerts”

Four musicians from the Ensemble Masques plunge into the heart of the French Baroque in a programme featuring two of its unrivalled composers, François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau. Masques presents two of Couperin’s famous Concerts Royaux, innovative works...
Giovanni Legrenzi : La morte del cor penitente

Giovanni Legrenzi : La morte del cor penitente

One of the most important composers in Venice at the end of the 17th century, Legrenzi played a leading role in the development of Baroque musical language in northern Italy. A master of Baroque musical rhetoric, his work makes use of numerous devices related to the...