Wednesday 6 February 2008

Gig-a-Blog™ (capella vitalis berlin, St Anne & St Agnes)

Monday, 4 February 2008

capella vitalis berlin. Almut Schlicker & Ulrike Wildenhof violins, Martin Knizia organ/harpsichord. Trio sonatas by Handel, Purcell and others

Purcell, Sonata in E minor: Gorgeous. What is it about Purcell? Something about its sense of structure and purpose that shows through? I don't know. It's just wonderful.

Birckenstock, Sonata no. 6 in G major (1 violin & harpsichord). Short life - 1687-1733 so he was born close to Bach and Handel but died very much earlier. Rather lovely. Very busy, fun allegro. I wonder if I can get a CD? Pretty adagio with excellent pause-and-twiddle™ moments. In fact it's all rather fine. Giga - fantastic facile flurries of fast flying fingers. Silly echo cadenza thing - excellent, punters on edges of seats (well I was), very clever.

Leclair Sonata no. 1 in D minor: 2 violins & organ. Nice change of texture. Nice sonata but less exciting than the other two so far.

Handel Sonata no. 6 in G minor: Back to two violins & harpsichord. 1st allegro - intricate, clever, interesting. The arioso was quite beautiful and the final allegro light, dashing and played with precision and verve.

I loved the rich, warm, room-filling sound of this ensemble. Very very nice.

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