The Muses Restor'd

The award-winning Baroque violinist Rachel Podger draws inspiration from the captivating revival of the arts in England after 1660 for her new album The Muses Restor'd. Taking the title as a theme, Rachel and her inspired Brecon Baroque guide the listener on a journey through engaging chamber music with violin from Jacobean to early Georgian England. From the gentle intimacy of the consort idiom to the outstanding instrumental virtuosity of the developing Baroque period, this album reveals little-known gems of English instrumental music and its influences. This refined and intimate chamber music celebrates a rich tradition in which the violin joins an abundance of keyboard instruments, lutes, viols and cello continuo, and brings these sonatas, fantasias, suites, grounds and popular melodies back into the mainstream of English cultural life at the time. Together with four musicians from Brecon Baroque, Rachel Podger performs works by Händel, Lawes, Blow, Locke, Purcell, Schop, Jenkins, Baltzar and Jones. "This work offers a deeply satisfying kaleidoscope of musical expression spanning a century of British musical life." (Rachel Podger)