BIS: BISSACD1595

Airs and Graces

Prices shown exclude VAT. (UK tax is not payable for deliveries to United States.)
See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates.

7318599915951

BIS-SACD-1595

Airs and Graces

Scottish Tunes and London Sonatas

	Lord Aboynes welcome or Cumbernault house Clout the Cauldron Waly waly Lochaber Fy gar rub her o’er with straw Busk ye busk ye Bonny Bride The Flowers of the Forrest Dumbarton’s drums Logan Water Sonatas
Geminiani:	Sonata in C major for cello and basso continuo, Op. 5, No. 3
Handel:	Sonata in B minor for flute and continuo, HWV376 'Halle III' Minuetto from Sonata in E minor for flute and continuo, HWV375 'Halle II'
Roman:	Sonata X in E minor for flute and basso continuo, BeRI 210
Stanley:	Solo IV in B minor from Op. 4, for flute and basso continuo

Dan Laurin (recorder)

Parnassus Avenue

London in the early 1700’s offered a dazzling mix of virtually every European musical style. The recent union between England and Scotland led to an increased cultural exchange, and English audiences were entranced by the rhythms and colours of the traditional tunes of Scotland. Various collections, such as the settings by the recorder virtuoso Francesco Barsanti, were published and even Handel could not resist a few turns at the hornpipe in his Water Music. This state of affairs is reflected in the present mix of four baroque sonatas, by composers associated with London in various ways, and nine Scottish tunes in arrangements based on the Barsanti settings.

This imaginative programme is characteristic of the approach adopted by Parnassus Avenue, an ensemble which is constantly challenging ‘baroque standards’: according to Parnassus Avenue there is no ‘early’ music, just a never-ending ‘now’. In lending a John Stanley Adagio the same melancholy expressivity as the mournful Waly waly, and applying the same virtuosity to the hypnotic Clout the Cauldron as to a Handel Allegro, Dan Laurin and his colleagues also demonstrate that there are no genres, only one seamless musical whole.