5/5
Review:
Another beauty from Rachel Podger
This is yet another absolutely cracking disc from Rachel Podger. This one is a collection of gems from the early Italian Baroque by a variety of composers. Some, like Frescobaldi and Marini, are pretty familiar now, while others were unknown to me. All the pieces here are of top quality, though, and form a very rewarding and hugely enjoyable programme.
Needless to say, much of the enjoyment comes from the playing of Rachel Podger and her fellow musicians. They all rise seemingly effortlessly to the technical challenges of these pieces and endow them with real meaning, both in the quicker, more formal movements and in the freer, more improvisatory-sounding passages. It's all simply excellent, and never begins to sound remotely samey or dull (which cannot be said of all Baroque recitals, I'm afraid.) I keep going back to it and enjoying it just as much each time.
Channel Classics have done their usual excellent job on the recorded sound and the disc is attractively packaged. I have been a great admirer of Rachel Podger since first hearing her solo Bach over a decade ago, and her recordings have given me huge pleasure ever since. This is up there with the best of them, which is really saying something. It's a real beauty and very warmly recommended.
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