Francesco Barsanti (1690-1775) played in Handel's opera orchestra in London and then moved to Edinburgh, where he worked for the gentlemen of the Edinburgh Musical Society. This is one of a pair of albums devoted to his concertos and other works by Ensemble Marsyas, released on the Linn label. Barsanti seems for all the world a direct follower of Handel, and the inclusion of the overture to Handel's opera Atalanta, HWV 35, seems to confirm the link. Yet what gives the music here its particular flavor are the hints of ...
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Francesco Barsanti (1690-1775) played in Handel's opera orchestra in London and then moved to Edinburgh, where he worked for the gentlemen of the Edinburgh Musical Society. This is one of a pair of albums devoted to his concertos and other works by Ensemble Marsyas, released on the Linn label. Barsanti seems for all the world a direct follower of Handel, and the inclusion of the overture to Handel's opera Atalanta, HWV 35, seems to confirm the link. Yet what gives the music here its particular flavor are the hints of progressive musical thought. Worth the price of admission are the four lively works from A Collection of Old Scots Tunes, played here on violin and Baroque guitar; Barsanti was not the first composer to set down vernacular musical materials in this way, but the practice was quite new in the 1720s when he created the present pieces. (There are more on Ensemble Marsyas' earlier Barsanti release.) The concerti grossi, too, have fresh touches. They were apparently the first ones anywhere to...
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