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London around the year 1700 was one of Europe's leading music centres. Composers and musicians from all over the continent, Handel among them, flocked to the British capital. This CD contains the finest recorder music from that era, performed by one of the best-known European recorder-players, Bart Coen, and his ensemble.

The album includes flute music by well know composers like Händel, Purcell and Corelli as well as less known works like Francesco Mancini’s “Sonata IV”, Andrew Parcham’s ”Solo in G” and a world premiere recording of James Paisibles “Sonatta Flutto Solo”.

Bart Coen is one of the leading recorder players of our time. He has worked together with well-known artists like René Jacobs, Paul Van Nevel (Huelgas Ensemble), Philippe Herreweghe (Collegium Vocale), Sigiswald Kuijken (La Petite bande) and more. In 2009 he realized his first CD project with Per Flauto “Manoscritto di Napoli 1725” which received numerous enthusiastic reviews.

Originally released in 2010 on DVD and has since shipped nearly 13.000 units, and is now available on BLURAY. Recorded live at the Metropolitan Opera during one of the fabled theatre’s greatest nights in 2009. Elīna Garanča builds on the success of 2009 album, Bel Canto, incarnating the bel canto title role heroine, Cinderella, in Rossini’s touching and hilarious comic masterpiece, La Cenerentola

Extras: The opera is introduced by baritone Thomas Hampson, who also interviews Elīna Garanča deftly and with charm. More interviews with Simone Alberghini, Alessandro Corbelli, Lawrence Brownlee and John Relyea

Peter Lea-Cox has been the Musical Director of the Camden Chamber Choir since 1984. He is also the founder and musical director of the Lecosaldi Ensemble, a professional group of players and singers. In addition, he has an active freelance career, including, of late, organ-playing and choral conducting tours in Denmark and the USA, and being an examiner for Associated Board of Music.

Peter’s rich and varied career as a teacher, composer and keyboard player has included: teacher of choral conducting, keyboard skills and sight-singing at the Royal Academy of Music; Director of Music at St Jude-onthe- Hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb; organist at St Mary-at-Hill in the City, and Cantor at St Anne & St Agnes on Gresham Street. In these last two positions he is well known for masterminding the Bach Vespers, a series of Bach cantata performances in concert and in their correct liturgical position in services.

Although the ‘Six Songs of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ were written as a stand-alone set, the choice of the ‘Eight Seasonal Anthems’ and the ‘Collected Songs’ was mined from a rich source of Lea-Cox oeuvres. The huge range of variety and style presented on this CD is quite deliberate, trying to give a fair representation of Peter’s many musical voices. The dissonance of Winter Prelude for example, is in marked contrast to the sing-a-long refrain of Let the season lift the spirit.

Thomas Fortmann was born in Switzerland and became a successful songwriter during the 70s. He wrote his first "hit" at the age of 16, which was followed by over a hundred titles released in more than 27 countries. Famous German rock stars such as Udo Lindenberg, Love Generation, J Urgen Drews and others, as well as British artists such as Alexis Korner and Italian singer Daniela Davoli have recorded his songs. He composed the music for the musical Tell (1977), which created a scandal in Switzerland. The record made it into all German-speaking charts.

The music of Thomas Fortmann does not subscribe to any particular school of thought. He studied the various composition techniques, but maintained a critical point of view towards them. This lead to the development of a notably personal style, often uniting different, sometimes even contrary impulses of the modern. Formalistic concepts seem to serve him mainly as a method of transportation and as a play-ground, resulting in very original ideas. It is, however, always important to him, despite the frequent use of complex structures, to directly communicate with the listener and make an emotional impact.

Fortmann’s Piano Trio (featured on this CD) received its US première at Carnegie hall on 25th October 2012.