Charles Avison News
English composer
- organ
- Kingdom of Great Britain
- composer, music critic
streaming
Last update
2024-03-24
Refresh
2023-09-15 07:11:00
A glimpse into the lively musical life of 18th-century Dublin: Smock Alley from Carina Drury's ensemble Irlandiani
[…] Nathaniel Mander in Roseingrave's rather striking and elegant Introduction to Scarlatti's Lessons, along with two of Scarlatti's sonatas, the rather perky K13 and the rather slower and more strikingly chromatic K 30. Sadly, Roseingrave's later years were plagued by mental illness, though his opera Phaedra and Hippolitus did receive a single performance at the Smock Alley Theatre.The composer Francesco Geminiani is known for his English connections, he would play with Handel and his pupils included Charles Avison, but Geminiani also spent periods in Dublin, in the 1730s and again from 1758 until his death in 1762. His Cello Sonata in A major Op. 5, No. 1 dates from 1746 though Geminiani was clearly proud enough of it to republish the final movement in a later collection of his music adapted for harpsichord. In four movements, we again get slow-fast pairs. A rhetorical first movement leading to a robust dance, then plangent singing […]
2022-02-25 08:36:05
Celebrating the bicentenary of the death of William Herschel with premiere recordings of two of his trio sonatas
[…] band of the Hanoverian Guards, and both Wilhelm (as he was then) and his brother Jakob were engaged as oboists with the band. But the threat of war and defeat in battle led their father to send Wilhelm and Jakob to England in 1757. Wilhelm was charged with desertion but would be pardoned by King George III (also King of Hanover) in 1782. Wilhelm naturalised, learned English, and by 1761 was lead violinist with Charles Avison's orchestra in Newcastle, before moving to Leeds then Halifax (where he was the first organist at the church that is now Halifax Minster). In 1766 he became the organist of the newly built Octagon Chapel in Bath where in 1767 he directed a performance of Handel's Messiah (with Paragon Singers in Bath currently having a project to celebrate these performances, see my article). He was also director of public concerts in Bath and by 1780 he […]
2022-01-19 12:31:39
Armonico Consort celebrates its 20th anniversary with performances of new editions of music by the other Scarlatti, Francesco
[…] violin concertos by Bach and Vivaldi with violinist Rachel Podger. Before the concerts Dr Webber will be giving a talk about Francesco Scarlatti and his wider family, where both male and female members of the family were working as musicians, often with colourful personal lives. And for those interested in the later Francesco Scarlatti, in 2002 a group of 12 sonatas by him were found written in one of the work-books of Newcastle composer Charles Avison (1709-1770). Full details from the Armonico Consort website.
2021-10-16 12:22:07
Thrilling virtuosity and engaging personality in Arias for Ballino, tenor Jorge Navarro Colorado's exploration of rare 18th-century repertoire with Opera Settecento at London Handel Festival
[…] judging by the aria we heard, the work is worth investigating, with interestingly complex writing for the orchestra complementing the voice nicely. Francesco Scarlatti (1666-c1741) is certainly not a well-known name, younger brother of the better-known Alessandro (and thus uncle to Domenico), Francesco came to London around 1719. Not that much music survives, but in 2002 a group of 12 sonatas by him were found written in one of the work-books of Newcastle composer Charles Avison (1709-1770). We heard one of these, more akin to a concerto grosso than a sonata and full of the sort of contrapuntal interest that might have been a touch old-fashioned but was clearly beloved of the English (Avison, the transcriber, had studied with Geminiani in London). The final slow movement has strong echoes of Vivaldi's Four Seasons (notably Spring). The operas of Antonio Caldara (1670-1736), an Italian working in Vienna, are still not as […]
or
- timeline: Composers (Europe).
- Indexes (by alphabetical order): A...