John Holman

Although accorded a substantial article in the New Grove Dictionary of Opera, the German-born composer John Frederick Lampe (1702/3-51) remains largely unknown except to connoisseurs of 18th-century English music. Yet on the evidence of this disc, such neglect is hardly deserved, since Lampe possesses a rare gift for writing genuinely comic opera. The basis for his Pyramus and Thisbe of 1745 (subtitled ‘a mock opera’) is the famous play-within-a-play sequence from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Peter Holman is a conductor known particularly for his interpretations of post-Renaissance English music, but he has also received acclaim for his performances of the works of European masters of the Baroque period, including Handel, Telemann, Vivaldi, and Monteverdi. He has recorded extensively for the English label Hyperion and has established parallel careers as a harpsichordist, organist, teacher (Royal Academy of Music and Colchester Institute), and music journalist.

The late seventeenth century was a period of great change in English music. This was a time when the influences of Italian music were ever-increasing, brought to England by Italian composers such as Draghi, Haym, and Matteis, and by their German contemporaries Pepusch and Handel. In this new release we explore how the English composers Purcell, Weldon, and Croft responded to Italian music and incorporated the style into their own works. The piece by Purcell, Tell me, some pitying angel (or ‘The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation’), written in the style of an Italian cantata, perfectly illustrates his mastery of the Italian style.