This is a delightful
CD, an entertainment fit for nobles
indeed – and for all other classes too.
The musicianship is excellent, the programme
is well designed and more varied than
it might superficially appear to be.
One particular pleasure is the chance
it gives us to hear music by names we
don’t often encounter on CD.
Take Nicola Francesco
Haym, for example. A Roman by birth,
Haym was both a musician and a writer.
He came to England near the very beginning
of the eighteenth century. He worked
as a librettist for Handel – including
Ottone, Tolomeo, Giulio
Cesare in Egitto and Rodelinda.
He was active as an antiquarian, publishing
works on English coins and medals. He
also wrote works on Italian literature
and edited Torquato Tasso’s great poem
Gerusalemme Liberata. He worked
for Sir Robert Walpole as an advisor
in the purchase of paintings. And this
obviously cultured man continued to
write music too. Given the variety of
his cultural activities, there is a
sad irony in how John Aikin’s account
of Haym, in his compendious General
Biography (1799-1815) closes: "This
ingenious person, who seems to have
possessed too many arts to thrive by
any, died in 1729 or 1730". Peter
Holman’s interesting notes to the present
CD say that Haym was "the first
Italian cellist to settle In England"
and tell us that the Sonata recorded
here "seems to be an early work,
written in Rome in the 1690s. It is
a conventional four-movement work except
for the fact that, most unusually, the
pairs of movements are in different
keys". So not really all that conventional
at all! It is a fine piece, the opening
adagio a short movement of beautiful
gravity; the subsequent allegro is full
of Italian panache (and again very short);
two subsequent movements – an elegant
adagio and a witty presto – complete
a lovely sonata in miniature. Is there
more of Haym’s music to be heard?
Or consider the case
of Gottfried Finger, a Moravian virtuoso
of the viol de gamba who first came
to London to work in the Chapel of James
II. But the accession of William III
in 1688 effected a huge reduction in
the royal patronage of music. Finger
turned to the promotion of concerts
at York Buildings, near the Strand,
to the publication of his own music
for private performance (such as the
Trio Sonata recorded here) and to the
writing of music for the public theatres.
In 1704 he left England for Vienna –
apparently in a huff because he placed
only fourth, behind John Weldon, John
Eccles and Daniel Purcell, in a popular
contest to decide who was the best writer
of music for the London theatres! His
Trio Sonata in G minor is a sequence
of five movements, which closes with
a delightful jig. There are some attractive
melodies in the Sonata, and – in this
performance at any rate – a consistently
dancing rhythm.
There is also music
by the rather better known figure of
Johann Christoph Pepusch, the Prussian
who moved to England around 1704. Perhaps
his greatest fame resides in his collaboration
with John Gay on The Beggar’s Opera
(1728). But we do Pepusch an injustice
if we forget that he was also an important
musical theorist and one of the founders
of the Academy of Ancient Music. He
devoted much time to the study of Greek
music, which continued to fascinate
him until his death, at an advanced
age. Burney’s judgement on him – in
his General History of Music –
is shrewd. He calls him a "profound
musician"; but observes that "as
a practical musician, though so excellent
a harmonist, he was possessed of so
little invention, that few of his compositions
were ever in general use and favour,
except one or two of his twelve cantatas,
Alexis, and his airs for two
flutes or violins, consisting of simple
easy themes or grounds with variations,
each part echoing the other in common
divisions for the improvement of the
hand". The evidence is here for
us to hear.
As well as musical
‘immigrants’ such as these – and others
such as Paisible, Keller Handel – little
known English figures such as William
Williams and William Corbett are represented
on the CD. Both acquit themselves adequately,
compositionally speaking, and I am glad
to have heard these pieces, but neither
can be said to make any major claims
on the attention of posterity. The two
Purcells are a different matter. Henry’s
harpsichord suite No.2 gets a fine performance
from David Pollock on a modern copy
of a 1636 instrument by Andreas Ruckers,
which was enlarged and ‘improved’ by
Henri Hemsch in 1763; Henry’s younger
brother Daniel is represented by a Trio
Sonata in G minor, a fine and subtle
piece – isn’t it time for a full reassessment
of Daniel’s work, an attempt to see/hear
it free of the overshadowing presence
of his brother?
Of Handel’s presence
perhaps little need be said. His Trio
Sonata, which closes the disc – and
it might have overwhelmed some of the
other works had it appeared earlier
– readily persuades one that he was,
as Ben Jonson wrote of Shakespeare,
"not of an age, but for all time!".andelhan
The only work Handel composed for two
recorders and continuo, it immediately
demonstrates his mastery of the genre.
I am not an unqualified
lover of the recorder. If, therefore,
I say that I have thoroughly enjoyed
the playing of Sophie Middleditch and
Helen Hooker on this disc, it should
be understood as a very real compliment!
And they certainly profit from the accomplished
work of Joseph Crouch and David Pollock.
For its exploration
of little-known repertoire and its mixture
of familiar and unfamiliar composers;
for its thoroughly assured musicianship;
for its well-balanced and clear recorded
sound – this is a CD which will give
much delight to any listener wishing
to explore the music of the English
baroque.
Glyn Pursglove
The Parnassian Ensemble: Sophie Middleditch,
Helen Hooker (recorders); Joseph Crouch (cello);
David Pollock (harpsichord) 
