Repertoire
The Age of Enlightenment in the eighteenth century encouraged a flourishing of the arts not only amongst the aristocracy but also within the growing middle classes. The boundaries of instrumental music-making expanded as, on the one hand, public concert series became increasingly popular and, on the other, a flourishing amateur market was taking music into a wider domestic setting. Ease of music printing and distribution made sheet music much more accessible and the result today is an enormous corpus of wonderful works in easily attainable original editions.
We aim not only to select some of the very best of this music for our combination of instruments by the greatest composers of the period but also to put the music in context through carefully themed programmes and informative and entertaining presentation.
Our choice of repertoire seeks to exploit the full potential of our instruments and therefore to create a variety of instrumental timbres and sonorities. In particular, the harpsichord and the bass viol are not confined solely to their roles in the continuo section but are frequently heard as obbligato or melody lines alongside the flute, as in Rameau's glorious 'Pièces de Clavecin en Concert' and the trio sonatas of G.P.Telemann where the flute and viol share the solo lines. Graham doubles on recorder and Susanna also plays the treble viol, an instrument still favoured in the eighteenth century by amateur musicians, particularly women.
We aim not only to select some of the very best of this music for our combination of instruments by the greatest composers of the period but also to put the music in context through carefully themed programmes and informative and entertaining presentation.
Our choice of repertoire seeks to exploit the full potential of our instruments and therefore to create a variety of instrumental timbres and sonorities. In particular, the harpsichord and the bass viol are not confined solely to their roles in the continuo section but are frequently heard as obbligato or melody lines alongside the flute, as in Rameau's glorious 'Pièces de Clavecin en Concert' and the trio sonatas of G.P.Telemann where the flute and viol share the solo lines. Graham doubles on recorder and Susanna also plays the treble viol, an instrument still favoured in the eighteenth century by amateur musicians, particularly women.
