A Baroque Binge

Towards the end of last year I read two histories of music: Burkholder et al A History of Western Music, and Sadie and Latham's Cambridge Music Guide.

A while later, thinking over what I had read, I realised that the music I really, really like comes from the Baroque period - though I dislike Baroque architecture and am not too keen on Baroque painting.

But the music… tuneful, rhythmic, complicated in an ear-catching way, endlessly creative, and clearly written for performance by near-virtuoso musicians. It is at once familiar and novel, rewards attentive listening and yet fades politely into the background when you want it to. This is because much of it was written for audiences who were often talking, dining or dancing, and so the composers could pull all sorts of musical tricks that their fellow musicians would admire but would go straight over the heads of the audience. It's musicians' music, yet still entertaining and sometimes sublime.

J S Bach, G F Handel, and Antonio Vivaldi are the Holy Trinity of the Baroque, and I have a bunch of music by them. I also have some Purcell, Monteverdi, Couperin, Rameau, Geminiani, and Hasse from earlier years. So over a few weeks I treated myself to something I knew I would like, rather than something (like Schumann symphonies) I know I should try to appreciate. This is what I picked up:

 (And the first three volumes as well)

I'm so glad I did. Lovely stuff.

All from Foyles, which has a small but perfectly-formed music section. It's not as sprawling as the much-missed classical department of Tower Records, Piccadilly, but they make good choices. Once you get past the piles of compilation box sets.