L. Palmer

Legendary progressive rock giants Emerson, Lake & Palmer were formed in 1970 by the brilliant keyboard virtuoso Keith Emerson, gifted singer / composer / guitarist Greg Lake and dynamic drummer / percussionist Carl Palmer. Torchbearers of the progressive rock sound, ELP jointly created the super-group concept and are among the most important bands in the history of rock music…

In this companion volume to his earlier work, The Latin Language, Leonard R. Palmer now provides a history of The Greek Language, including an overview of the coming of the Greeks, the Linear B. Tablets, the Greek dialects, genres (in poetry and prose), and a comparative-historical grammar.

Every child who ever learnt the recorder or played in a school orchestra will probably know the famous ‘Minuet’ included in the Overture, but they can be forgiven for knowing little else from the work since it is so rarely performed. That its premiere in London in 1737 was a failure had little to do with Handel’s score but more with a growing public indifference to Italian opera. The music, as seasoned Handelians will not need to be told, is of high quality (though not perhaps at once among his most alluring scores), and Antonio Salvis’s libretto, concerned with politics and romance, provides the composer with opportunity for lively duets and evocative ‘simile’ arias. The cast is strong, though not uniformly so, with soprano Julianne Baird in the title role.

''Siroe'' (1728), the Italian opera that the huge popularity of ''The Beggar`s Opera'' drove from the London stage (and nearly ruined poor Handel), is hardly less fascinating. The plot resembles that of ''King Lear'' and is buoyed along by some of the most subtle and varied music Handel ever wrote for the theater. Again, the realization by members of Palmer`s ''stock company''

Though no one talked about it at the time of its release, this album reflected a growing split within the group. Originally, the trio's members, tired of sublimating their musical identities within the context of ELP, each intended to do a solo album of his own…