Carina Drury

Irlandiani: Smock Alley

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Irlandiani: Smock Alley
CD launch concert: Sands Music Room, Rotherhithe, Thursday 14 September 2023
Carina Drury & Poppy Walshaw, cellos, John-Henry Baker, violone, percussion
CD: First Hand Records, FHR144
plus Nathaniel Mander, harpsichord, Eimear McGeown, Irish flute


Following her earlier CD, Irlandiani (reviewed here) comes this latest recording from cellist Carina Drury and her collective group, also called Irlandiani. It is based on the musical life in and around the Smock Alley Theatre in 18th century Dublin. It features cello duos in the Galant style by the Neapolitan composer Tomasso Giordani who moved to Dublin in 1763 as musical director at the Smock Alley Theatre. As well as arrangements of 18th-century Irish melodies by musicians linked with the Smock Alley Theatre and its surrounds, the launch concert and recording also features music by Roseingrave, Scarlatti and Geminiani and a new piece by Carina Drury based on the Irish air Caoineadh Na Dtri Muire. If you are quick and live close enough, you can even catch the third of the laun

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La Serenissima: Vivaldi Double Concertos

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Vivaldi Double Concertos
La Serenissima, Adrian Chandler 
St Martin-in-the-Fields. 11 February 2023


In what was described as “a carnival of double concertos from 18th century Venice – music of fantasy, flamboyance and virtuosity to the power of two”, La Serenissima and its “charismatic founder” Adrian Chandler bought its “no-holds-barred flamboyance” to St Martin-in-the-Fields. It was a reminder of St Martin’s endless ‘Vivaldi by Candlelight’ tourist concerts, although their concert promotions are rather more elevated these days. As the publicity blurb enthused: “Baroque Venice was a city of doubles – of shimmering reflections and masked revellers. And since nothing succeeds like excess, when Vivaldi wrote concertos for two soloists, the results were spectacular: a carnival of colour, illusion and sparkling sonic conversation”.

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York Early Music International Young Artists Competition 2022

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

York Early Music International Young Artists Competition
National Centre for Early Music
St. Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, York. 16 July 2022

After a Covid-induced hiatus in 2021, the biennial York Early Music International Young Artists Competition returned to the impressively restored medieval church of St. Margaret’s, Walmgate, York, now the National Centre for Early Music. The detailed rules and other information can be seen here, but briefly, competitors must perform in an ensemble with at least 3 members with an average age of up to 33 years and an individual age of 37 or less. These ages are one year higher than usual and only apply to the 2022 competition because of the cancelled 2021 competition. The repertory must be from the middle ages to the 19th century, and performers must use historically informed techniques, instruments and stylistic conventions.

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The Library of a Prussian Princess

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

The Library of a Prussian Princess
Ensemble Augelletti
Barn Cottage Records BCR024. 60’25

Music by J S Bach, Handel, Corelli, Geminiani, C P E Bach, and Princess Anna Amalia

The Prussian Princess of the title is Anna Amalia (1723-1787), the younger sister of Frederick the Great. Despite the brutal childhood she shared with her brother, she managed to maintain a love of music, often in secret and aided by her brother. After a failed attempt to marry her off in her early 30s, she became the Abbess of the secular Imperial Abbey of Quedlinburg, a position of enormous wealth and power. Shortly after she started serious musical studies with Johann Philipp Kirnberger, a pupil of Bach and had a (still existing) organ built for her Berlin palace. She amassed an enormous library of music which is now part of the Berlin State Library. This imaginative and beautifully performed recording by Ensemble Augelletti is based on music from that library, including four pieces by Anna Amalia herself.

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Carina Drury: Irlandiani

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson

Irlandiani
An exploration of musical life in 18th Century Ireland
Penny Fiddle Records. PFR2005CD. 57’33


The musical life of 18th century Dublin is often overlooked in recordings, concerts and in many a musical history. With that in mind, the debut album Irlandiani from the Irish baroque cellist Carina Drury is particularly welcome. Taking its title from the name given to early Italian settlers in Ireland, the recording pictures the musical life of early 18th Century Dublin. It explores the influence of Irish folk music on Italian baroque composers living in Ireland, and the influence of the Italian baroque style on Irish composers. With Irish flute player Eimear McGeown and a combination of historic and traditional instruments, the album explores Irish music from The Neal Collection, the first printed collection of Irish music, together with cello sonatas by Italian composers who lived in Dublin during the 18th century.

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Olwen Foulkes: Directed by Handel

~ Andrew Benson-Wilson ~ 2 Comments

Directed by Handel
Music from Handel’s London Theatre Orchestra
Olwen Foulkes, recorder
Barn Cottage Recordings, bcr019. 64’04

The decline of the recorder as a serious classical music instrument has long been predicted, for reasons that are quite beyond me. As an example, some years ago I was shocked to hear somebody involved with a well-known young artists competition in the north of the UK comment that a recorder player or consort would never win first prize. But evidence shows that recorder music and players are going from strength to strength, not least with through an impressive cohort of young performers making their way onto the professional circuit. One such is Olwen Foulkes a recent prize-winning graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Music where she obtained a Distinction and DipRAM award for her MMus degree. I first heard and reviewed her at the 2016 Royal Academy of Music’s early music prize competition, where she was part of the prizewinning group, of two recorder players plus cello and harpsichord continuo. This is her debut recording.  Continue reading →