T B Elizabeth

Half a century ago, Giuseppe Tartini might have been the only composer of the Italian Baroque most classical music listeners could name. That was thanks to the so-called Devil's Trill, which appears as the final track on disc one of this two-disc set. Here one can experience the "trillo del Diavolo" in its proper place, as the final movement of a three-movement Sonata in G minor for violin and continuo, and within a larger slice of his output: this pairing of two previously released discs also includes a published set of violin sonatas from around the time of the Devil's Trill (around the early 1730s), and several later sonatas with a goodly degree of novelty on disc two. In a way, the rest of the music makes the Devil's Trill seem less remarkable.

Rodolphe Kreutzer, a virtuoso violinist and composer, was a central figure of the French violin school. The work that brought him his most enduring fame as a composer was his forty classical Études ou Caprices for violin solo. These etudes first published in 1796, quickly established themselves in violin repertoire laying the foundations for violin technique which is why they are regarded as indispensable by virtuosos and teachers alike. The collection not only includes practice pieces that require good technical ability but also character pieces which are expressive and fun to play.

Through more than 100 appearances on The Grand Ole Opry, Elizabeth Cook built strong ties to the audience most likely to respond to her debut album. Her voice throughout Hey Y'all begs comparison to classic country divas such as Loretta Lynn and especially Dolly Parton, to whom Cook pays good-humored tribute on "Dolly." …

It's obvious from the greasy opening blues vibe in "Exodus of Venus," the title track of Elizabeth Cook's first album in six years, that something is very different. Produced by guitarist Dexter Green, this set is heavier, darker, and harder than anything she's released before. Its 11 songs are performed by a crack band that includes bassist Willie Weeks, drummer Matt Chamberlain, keyboardist Ralph Lofton, and lap steel guitarist Jesse Aycock…

After a quick listen to Balls, it's hard to imagine why Warner Brothers dropped Elizabeth Cook after only one album. Could she have sounded too traditional for country radio? Did they want her to tone down her in-your-face delivery? The mysteries of major labels are many and unfathomable, so suffice it to say that Cook is a major talent and will undoubtedly wind up with another major-label deal. Balls has the same power and charm evident on her earlier outings and the bonus of Rodney Crowell's sharp production talents…

Elizabeth Wallfisch returns to CPO, this time to perform the 24 Caprices of another member of the Classical French violin school, Pierre Rode. Wallfisch is a superb violinist who specializes in historical performance practice. Rode composed almost entirely for the violin and his 24 Caprices en Forme d’Etudes are undoubtedly his most important works for solo violin. Unlike Kreutzer’s forty Études ou Caprices (999901-2), Rode’s Caprices are in order of key, not technical ability.

Continuing to go her own way on Gospel Plow, Elizabeth Cook is another artist who's too rock for country and too country for rock, although in the music business climate of 2012 she may be too country for country, too. As you might expect from the title of this mini-album, Gospel Plow is a record of sacred music, although it's marked by Cook's own inimitable mix of styles and features at least one track that will surprise almost any country fan, not matter how alt. The songs are mostly familiar, although the arrangements are anything but…

Elizabeth Cook comes to country music naturally; her parents had a working honky tonk band and her first public performance was on-stage with them when she was just a tyke…

The violin concertos here are not the familiar pair in A minor and E. Bach composed a number of concertos for orchestral instruments and later transcribed them as keyboard concertos. Reversing Bach’s procedure, Wilfried Fischer has taken the harpsichord versions and from them has reconstructed the originals. BWV 1056 is a transposed transcription of the Keyboard Concerto in F minor (though New Grove identifies the outer movements as being from a lost oboe concerto). The D minor work is also usually heard in its keyboard adaptation. The concerto in C minor for two harpsichords appears in its original instrumentation for violin and oboe, the soloists here being perfectly balanced for clarity of line. It was Tovey who suggested that the A major concerto may have been intended for the oboe d’amore, an instrument pitched between the oboe proper and the cor anglais.

With a voice described as one of the most beautiful Britain has seen in a generation (International Record Review), Elizabeth Watts has established herself among the brightest talents performing today. In this selection of rarely heard Alessandro Scarlatti arias from his cantatas, oratorios and operas, she is joined by the acclaimed period instrument ensemble The English Concert led by Laurence Cummings.