The King's Consort - Purcell: Twelve Sonatas Of Three Parts (2015)

Henry Purcell's Twelve Sonatas of Three Parts were issued in 1683, when the composer was 24 and the first wave of Italian trio sonata-like pieces was hitting France and England with earthshaking impact. Purcell followed Italian models with a pair of interlocking violin parts over a continuo, but the results are unmistakably English and hark back to the melancholy consort tradition, with oddly shaped lines and pungent dissonances scattered through the short, four-movement pieces (six or seven minutes in total). The King's Consort strikes a nice balance between these two stylistic worlds with a smooth, quiet performance that in its own time would have let the connoisseurs hear the unusual passages without being hit over the head by them. You could really jump in and sample anywhere, but the Sonata No. 5 in A minor, Z794 (track 9) gives the flavor of the whole. Leader and keyboardist Robert King adds variety to a set of pieces not really meant to be performed one after the other with a fascinating pair of instruments: a chamber organ in English Baroque-era style and a copy of a still older harpsichord. The early 18th century violins of Cecilia Bernardini and Huw Daniel speak in hushed, slightly mysterious tones in this lovely recording of Purcell's neglected non-theatrical instrumental music. -- James Manheim