...extraordinary trio sonatas...
‘Bassoonist Peter Whelan combines agility with lyricism and laid-back grace.’ Gramophone
‘Huggett's playing shines with ease and expression.’ The Times
• Ensemble Marsyas’ debut recording on Linn features three of the extraordinary trio sonatas by the Bohemian composer Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745) for violin, two oboes, bassoon and continuo on period instruments.
• These sonatas represent the most spectacularly challenging music ever written for wind instruments in terms of their utopian demands on the technique of the players, their musical integrity and their breathtaking scale.
• This repertoire saw the ensemble awarded both first prize and the audience prize at the 2007 Brugge International Competition.
• The Edinburgh based chamber group comprises the best of a new generation of musicians specialising in early music from across Europe.
• Ensemble Marsyas is Peter Whelan - bassoon, Josep Domènech Lafont - oboe, Molly Marsh - oboe, Thomas Dunford - theorbo, Philippe Grisvard - harpsichord/organ, Christine Sticher - violone.
• They are joined for this recording by Baroque violinist Monica Huggett who is currently head of historical performance at the Juilliard School in New York and a multiple Gramophone Award winner and Grammy nominee.
• The members of Ensemble Marsyas have been awarded accolades by both critics and the recording industry alike - the most recent including a 2010 Gramophone Award for a recording featuring Peter Whelan.
Chamber Choice: 'Zelenka's Sonatas sparkle in the hands of Monica Huggett and Ensemble Marsyas'
International Record Review
'They bring bags of bite and energy to the unison theme of the opening ritornello movement...'
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Double Reed News
Zelenka in Scotland
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The Herald
'Why there's an air of genius in the wind'
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The Observer
'lively'
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The SACD layer is both 5.1 channel and 2-channel.
The Studio Master files are 192kHz / 24 bit