Michael Talbot

At the heart of George Berg's (oEuvre are his seven collections of keyboard music. His sonatinas for harpsichord were a by-product of his teaching, appearing in three volumes between 1759 and 1762. Te...

At the heart of George Berg's (oEuvre are his seven collections of keyboard music. His sonatinas for harpsichord were a by-product of his teaching, appearing in three volumes between 1759 and 1762. Te...

George Berg's eight keyboard suites, Op. 5, were published in London around 1760, while the composer was travelling in Italy. They are his most varied and resourceful compositions, following generally...

Giuseppe Torelli (1658-1709) was the reputed father of the instrumental concerto, yet he also composed sacred vocal music. Discovered in 2001, when the Berlin Sing-Akademie's archive was returned from...

The eighteenth century saw a great increase in secular music for solo voice and continuo set to texts in Venetian, then a recognized literary language rather than a mere Italian dialect. Most of these...

These previously unnoticed chamber duets for various pairs of voices and basso continuo are among the most original compositions from the pen of Diogenio Bigaglia (1678-1745), the Venetian monk who wa...

These previously unnoticed chamber duets for various pairs of voices and basso continuo are among the most original compositions from the pen of Diogenio Bigaglia (1678-1745), the Venetian monk who wa...

Henry Holcombe (1690–1756), born in Chester as the son of a silk weaver, became between 1720 and his death one of the leading English composers in small-scale forms, mainly vocal but also instrumental...

Giuseppe Torelli (1658-1709) was the reputed father of the instrumental concerto; what is not widely known is that he also composed sacred vocal music. Discovered in 2001, when the Berlin Sing-Akademi...

George Berg's eight keyboard suites, Op. 5, were published in London around 1760, while the composer was travelling in Italy. They are his most varied and resourceful compositions, following generally...

Sonata 1 opens with a movement marked 'Sostenuto' and expresses to perfection the melancholy gracefulness associated with B minor. A vivacious Allegro follows, kaleidoscopic in its ever-changing rhyth...

Towards the end of his long life the organist Christian Michael Wolff (1707-1789), resident in the Baltic port of Stettin (today, Szczecin in Poland), achieved a degree of fame as a composer through t...

Trio sonatas by Italian composers from the period around 1730 that specify flutes for both upper parts are quite rare. Among the earliest known are these three concise four-movement sonatas of only mo...

The flute sonatas, now published in a modern edition for the first time, are all three-movement works. They bubble with life and have moments of great drama, particularly in the development sections o...

The flute sonatas, now published in a modern edition for the first time, are all three-movement works. They bubble with life and have moments of great drama, particularly in the development sections o...

Skinner’s main publication was a set of six sonatas for flute, violin or solo harpsichord, which came out in 1752. These unpretentious pieces, then as now well suited to performance by amateurs or by...

Skinner’s main publication was a set of six sonatas for flute, violin or solo harpsichord, which came out in 1752. These unpretentious pieces, then as now well suited to performance by amateurs or by...

This compact sinfonia is an early example of a true chamber sinfonia: that is, an offshoot of the Italian-style operatic overture intended from the start to be a free-standing composition for use in e...

Towards the end of his long life the organist Christian Michael Wolff (1707-1789), resident in the Baltic port of Stettin (today, Szczecin in Poland), achieved a degree of fame as a composer through t...

Towards the end of his long life the organist Christian Michael Wolff (1707-1789), resident in the Baltic port of Stettin (today, Szczecin in Poland), achieved a degree of fame as a composer through t...

Wolff's Concerto in G major for Flute, Strings and Basso Continuo encloses a wistful Largo in E minor between a stately Moderato and a sprightly, dance-like Allegretto. The solo instrument is treated...

Stanley Sadie’s opinion, expressed in 1963, that the two of the twelve trio sonatas by Frederick Ernest Fisher(1711/12–1760), divided equally between Op. 1 (c.1751) and Op. 2 (c.1761), were ‘among the...

Stanley Sadie’s opinion, expressed in 1963, that the two of the twelve trio sonatas by Frederick Ernest Fisher(1711/12–1760), divided equally between Op. 1 (c.1751) and Op. 2 (c.1761), were ‘among the...

Stanley Sadie’s opinion, expressed in 1963, that the two of the twelve trio sonatas by Frederick Ernest Fisher(1711/12–1760), divided equally between Op. 1 (c.1751) and Op. 2 (c.1761), were ‘among the...