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Ashley Solomon, Flute/Director

Reiko Ichise, Viola da Gamba

Siobhan Armstrong, Harp

This programme explores the intimate, elegant sound-world of France and Italy in the 17th and early 18th centuries, with music by composers who were titans at the time, writing for flute and bass viol. The Italian, triple-row harp was also played in France, described by the French scientist Marin Mersenne in his 1636 work, Harmonie Universelle.

Michel de la Barre was the first (1702) to publish Pièces pours le Flûte traversière. The Sonate l’Inconnuë is the final ‘suite’ and is rounded off appropriately with a gloriously buoyant Chaconne.

Marin Marais was the central figure in the French school of bass-viol that flourished during the late 17th and early 18th century. He spent the greater part of his life in royal service in Paris, playing under the direction of Lully.

The founder of the French flute school, Jacques Hotteterre enjoyed the status of Flûte de la Chambre du Roy, and was the first to publish a treatise to help guide players around the complexities of the instrument.

Jacques Morel was a pupil of Marais. This short Chaconne, from c. 1709, employs the flute and bass viol as solo partners.

The Italian Luigi Rossi was a master composer of operas and cantatas. His music was extremely popular in France where he spent some time working for Cardinal Mazarin who commissioned him to write the opera Orfeo, premiered in Paris in 1647.

Arcangelo Corelli, often referred to as ‘the prince of musicians’, built an enviable contemporaneous reputation as a violin virtuoso and composer of dramatic and experimental music.

Jean-Baptiste Barrière was a virtuoso cellist and composer. After studying in Italy with the cellist Franciscello, he gave numerous performances in one of the earliest public concert series, the Parisian Concert Spirituel, having been accorded special privileges by Louis XV at Fontainebleau in 1733.

© Ashley Solomon 2025