Terence Charlston

Taro Takeuchi presents a unique and rare collection of virtuoso guitar music from the mid 18th Century.

Having spent many hours researching music from the Georgian period, respected guitarist Taro Takeuchi has compiled a unique collection of music by five important composers, all of whom were active in 18th Century Britain, performing on period instruments with historical metal strings.

Although guitar pieces from this era were mainly for domestic use, several outstanding composers wrote very high quality pieces and this CD presents some of the best guitar music from this specific epoch. This disc also features the well known Menuet from Handel’s Water Music (quite a few opera arias and orchestral works by Handel were transcribed for the guitar during the 8th century).

A newly discovered manuscript revealed to be the music of Antoine Selosse is given its premiere recording on disc by keyboard virtuoso, Terence Charlston.

This exciting and historically important new CD, entitled ‘La Chasse Royale’ presents a newly discovered manuscript of music by Antoine Selosse.

Although it seems possible that Antoine Selosse (the Jesuit musician Antonio Mason alias Selosse, 1621-87, who was active at the English Jesuit College of Saint Omer in the 1680s) is the ‘Selos’ to whom the contents of the manuscript were attributed in the first flyleaf inscription, various factors mitigate against his authorship of the whole collection. The repertoire chosen for inclusion in Selosse’s remarkable book covers a broad spectrum of the genres popular in seventeenth century Europe and reveals a wide range of national influences and styles. It consists of mainly dance pieces (often with variations of their own) and these are grouped by key. Few pieces have a specific title and no composers are named but the authorship of only one piece can be stated with confidence: Bull’s popular The King’s Hunt 3 and the suites in G major (13-14) and D major (16-19) are strikingly similar, on stylistic grounds, to works by John Roberts.

Terence Charlston is one of Britain’s Leading early keyboard players and a specialist performer on harpsichord.

This is a rare collection of keyboard works by the Italian composer, Monza (1696 – 1739) who was an important composer of vocal music for the stage and church of whom very little is known.

Will appeal to Early Music Collectors and those interested in historical keyboard works.

Historically significant manuscript recording in association with British Library.

My Ladye Nevells Booke is one of the finest surviving Tudor music manuscripts. The contents are entirely devoted to the keyboard music of William Byrd, of which it is the single most important source. Byrd was the most important composer of the golden age of keyboard composition known as the English virginalist school.

As a solo harpsichordist and chamber musician, Terence Charlston is well known to chamber music audiences through his work with many renowned artists and especially London Baroque. He founded the department of Historical Performance at the Royal Academy of Music, London, and is professor of harpsichord at the Royal College of Music, London.

Sharon Bezaly has demonstrated her great gifts as a flutist on a number of recordings on BIS ranging from the concertos written for her by renowned contemporary composers, including Sofia Gubaidulina and Kalevi Aho, to the classic staples of the flute literature such as Mozart’s concertos and flute quartets. Along the way there has been a wealth of imaginatively programmed recital discs, focusing on the great flute sonatas as well as the French flute tradition.

On this disc, Bezaly visits the period in which the flute became established as a solo instrument in its own right. It was only in the eighteenth century that wind players began to specialize on flute rather than oboe or recorder and composers started writing specifically for it. This disc reflects these exciting developments in musical taste with a programme of six sonatas for flute and harpsichord, with and without the support of a bass instrument.

Bezaly has chosen to perform with London Baroque members Charles Medlam and Terence Charlston. The result is a highly enjoyable disc, which marries together the golden tones of Bezaly’s modern flute with the stylistic expertise of two of the most experienced musicians in the field of historical performance.

The Leçons de Ténèbres gathered here are some of the finest in the genre. By the time of Couperin and Lalande, a practice of singing the Lamentations of Jeremiah during Holy Week had been established in which the text was divided into nine ‘lessons’ sung over three days, with one candle of a special candelabra being extinguished after each lesson, until ‘tenebrae’ or darkness was achieved on Good Friday. The three Leçons by François Couperin, composed for the royal monastery of Longchamp c. 1714, are highly regarded. (Couperin himself at one time referred to a full set of nine lessons, but only the three for Holy Wednesday are known today.) Couperin, named ‘Organiste du Roi’ in 1693, was the colleague of de Lalande, ‘Maître de Chapelle’ at the French court, whose own Leçons were composed for the royal chapel.