The music of Newcastle-based composer Charles Avison is becoming more frequently recorded. His Italian-style trio sonatas, here designated Six Sonatas for two violins and a bass, Op. 1, were written under the influence of Avison's teacher Geminiani and thus come down in a line directly from Corelli. Each is in four movements, with a good deal of the sober tone of the Italian "church sonata" present especially in the unusual Sonata No. 1, "in chromatic Dorian mode." Few other Baroque works made use, at least explicitly, of ...
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The music of Newcastle-based composer Charles Avison is becoming more frequently recorded. His Italian-style trio sonatas, here designated Six Sonatas for two violins and a bass, Op. 1, were written under the influence of Avison's teacher Geminiani and thus come down in a line directly from Corelli. Each is in four movements, with a good deal of the sober tone of the Italian "church sonata" present especially in the unusual Sonata No. 1, "in chromatic Dorian mode." Few other Baroque works made use, at least explicitly, of the medieval and Renaissance modes, and the work is characteristic of a certain fantastic aspect in Avison's music that's very nicely captured here by a group of British early music veterans styling themselves the Avison Ensemble. Ornamentation by violinists Pavlo Beznosiuk and Caroline Balding is frequent, with a bit of an explosive quality. Things get even more unusual wth the second set of works on this two-disc release, the Six Sonatas for harpsichord, with accompaniment of two...
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