Muses Restor'd, Baltzar / Geminiani / Brecon Baroque, CD

Award-winning Baroque violinist Rachel Podger takes the resurgence of the Arts in England post-1660 as the compelling inspiration for her new album, The Muses Restor'd. Adopting it's title as it's theme, Rachel and her vivacious Brecon Baroque take the listener on a journey of captivating violin-led chamber music from Jacobean to Early Georgian England. Ranging from the gentle intimacy of consort idioms to the full-blown instrumental virtuosity of the evolving Baroque period, this album uncovers little known glories of English instrumental music and it's influences. This refined and intimately chiselled chamber music celebrates a rich tradition where the violin joins a plethora of keyboards, lutes, viol and continuo cello reinstating these sonatas, fantasies, suites, grounds and popular tunes to the mainstream of English cultural life of the time. Together with four musicians from Brecon Baroque, Rachel Podger performs works by Handel, Lawes, Blow, Locke, Purcell, Schop, Jenkins, Baltzar and Jones. "This oeuvre provides a deeply satisfying kaleidoscope of musical expression over a century of British musical life." - Rachel Podger