Baroque Concerto Grosso

Celebrating 10 years of concerts, Victoria Baroque has released a new CD of ravishing Baroque concertos for multiple instruments. The concerti on the recording represent innovative baroque works by both famous composers - Vivaldi and Telemann, and less known composers Dall'Abaco and Heinichen working during the same period. They are influenced by the operas and sacred cantatas of the period. The Victoria Baroque is a leading ensemble specializing in the concerti of the baroque era.

One of the foremost musical artists performing today, William Bennett has raised the profile of the flute to that of an instrument capable of a wide range of tonal colours, dynamics, and expression, giving it the depth, dignity, and grandeur of the voice or a string instrument.

This CD sketches a portrait of the musical reality of the British Isles during the first half of the 18th century. The eight concerti grossi in this programme have been chosen for the features they possessin common, a primordial position being accorded to the work of Francesco Scarlatti. These are pieces of Italian origin in sonata form; the concerto grosso being the émigré of this programme.

Although at least one of the three oboe concertos on this recording is almost undoubtedly spurious, this is still one of the loveliest Handel recordings ever made - gorgeous melodies, elegant but energetic playing and sound engineering that can hardly get any better.

I Musici here performs the concerti grossi of Alessandro Scarlatti and his flute concerti. Scarlatti tended to be rather conservative in his compositions by adhering strictly to Corelli's concerto grosso model. He is not Vivaldi, Locatelli, or Torelli, but his pieces have somewhat of a pastoral warmth to them.

On this disc, we feature the works of three composers – Vincent d’Indy, Ernst Krenek, and Erwin Schulhoff – who all in the mid- to late-1920s adopted neoclassicism and chose to write works in the neo-baroque concerto grosso style, using a combination of a small orchestra and a small group of soloists. D’Indy wrote the Concert, his last orchestral piece, at the age of seventy-five.

I Musici here performs the concerti grossi of Alessandro Scarlatti and his flute concerti. Scarlatti tended to be rather conservative in his compositions by adhering strictly to Corelli's concerto grosso model. He is not Vivaldi, Locatelli, or Torelli, but his pieces have somewhat of a pastoral warmth to them.

This CD sketches a portrait of the musical reality of the British Isles during the first half of the 18th century. The huge success of the Italian concerto grosso was a response to the necessity of freeing music from a secondary role to which it found itself confined, notably in France with ballet music. Unaffected by the rivalry between French and Italian music, the British seemed to be attracted by purely instrumental music; the concerto grosso consequently afforded them a freshness, a boldness, and a hint of unique maestria that held an immediate appeal.

This CD sketches a portrait of the musical reality of the British Isles during the first half of the 18th century. The huge success of the Italian concerto grosso was a response to the necessity of freeing music from a secondary role to which it found itself confined, notably in France with ballet music. Unaffected by the rivalry between French and Italian music, the British seemed to be attracted by purely instrumental music; the concerto grosso consequently afforded them a freshness, a boldness, and a hint of unique maestria that held an immediate appeal.