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Track(s) taken from CDA66646

Ground in G minor

composer
British Library, Add.MS33236

Timothy Roberts (harpsichord/spinet/virginals)
Recording details: January 1993
Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel, Hampstead, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Antony Howell
Release date: May 1993
Total duration: 4 minutes 37 seconds

Cover artwork: Music-making on a terrace (c1670). Jan Steen (c1626-1679)
Reproduced by permission of The Trustees, The National Gallery, London
 

Other recordings available for download

Arcangelo, Jonathan Cohen (conductor)
The Parley of Instruments

Reviews

‘Full of interest, rich in its varied pleasures and in the high standard of recording and performance’ (Gramophone)
The date of composition of the Ground in G minor is unknown but, intriguingly, it shares both its scoring and key with a Purcell trio sonata constructed over a ground bass, a work which dates probably from the early 1680s, and which follows a similar trajectory: as with the G major Chaconne, both grounds gradually increase in animation until busy rhythmic activity subsides into a more reflective conclusion. Another version survives of Blow’s piece, scored for a single violin and bass; it is probably the original, the hand of the arranger of the present two-violin version being betrayed at the beginning of the ninth variation, where the ground is passed, abruptly and for only a couple of bars, to the second violin part, and there decorated.

from notes by Bruce Wood © 2017

Other albums featuring this work

Blow: An Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell & other works
Studio Master: CDA68149Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
Blow: Awake my lyre
CDA66658Download only
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