This iconoclastic U.S. release of music from 18th century London, with its cover indication of the old instruments played by violinist Martin Davids and organist David Yearsley, seems to promise historical performances, but this is only partly true. The two musicians do use historical instruments, but the combination of violin and organ is unusual on the face of it, and some of its applications are even more so. What is actually involved is a fanciful take on music that would have been familiar to London audiences of the ...
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This iconoclastic U.S. release of music from 18th century London, with its cover indication of the old instruments played by violinist Martin Davids and organist David Yearsley, seems to promise historical performances, but this is only partly true. The two musicians do use historical instruments, but the combination of violin and organ is unusual on the face of it, and some of its applications are even more so. What is actually involved is a fanciful take on music that would have been familiar to London audiences of the time, which was justified, as Yearsley puts it in his fine notes, by "the tradition of opportunistic adaptation Handel so brilliantly and unapologetically cultivated." This argument by itself is entirely reasonable; Handel and other composers of the era never hesitated to reduce, reuse, and recycle, and the organ, especially in small, peppy versions like the Neapolitan instrument played by Yearsley here, had its secular uses in a variety of instrumental music. The three Scarlatti...
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