The sublime early-instrument ensemble Trio Settecento (1700s Trio) has taken listeners on an unprecedented country-by-country Grand Tour of the European Baroque through a series of...

The sublime early-instrument ensemble Trio Settecento (1700s Trio) has taken listeners on an unprecedented country-by-country Grand Tour of the European Baroque through a series of four recordings, issued individually between 2007 and 2012. Each album provides an in-depth exploration of the musical styles of a single country - Italy, Germany, France, England. Now, the entire critically acclaimed series is available as a specially priced boxed set.

Trio Settecento brings fresh insights to music from the Age of Enlightenment through its passionate, authoritative and distinctive interpretations. The trio of Billboard chart-topping violinist Rachel Barton Pine, cellist and violist da gamba John Mark Rozendaal, and harpsichordist and organist David Schrader perform music by composers likely to be familiar to even casual fans of Baroque music. But they also proceed to offer a wealth of delightful discoveries by composers less well known.

'An Italian Sojourn' focuses on the Italian and Italian-influenced composers who were enamoured with the newly emergent solo “voice” of the violin.

On 'A German Bouquet', Trio Settecento takes listeners beyond the music of Bach and Buxtehude. While the CD includes works by those two giants of the German Baroque, it also offers rarely heard repertoire by composers who were among the greatest German violinists of the era.

Trio Settecento captures the poetic gestures of the Gallic school on 'A French Soirée', a program that illuminates divergent cultural sensibilities of Baroque France. Some works illustrate the regal, socially conservative and authoritarian aesthetic of the court of Louis XIV. Others, which would have been heard in the salons of disaffected nobles and wealthy merchants, reflect a more free-spirited, cosmopolitan and humanistic outlook.

'An English Fancy' focuses on the fantasy, the form that infatuated English Baroque composers. Listeners venture into unusual realms of sonic imagination by virtue of the daring experiments in melody, harmony, counterpoint and other musical elements heard in these 16th- and 17th-century works.

REVIEW:

Chicago-based label Çedille has reissued four albums recorded by the American early music ensemble Trio Settecento in a box set simply titled Grand Tour. The classic education of the upper class in the 17th century included a tour of the European continent, and these albums offer a similar regimen for the music of the time. An Italian Sojourn, A German Bouquet, A French Soirée, and An English Fancy give a well-rounded presentation of western European Baroque music, from such composers as Corelli, Handel, Buxtehude, Bach, Couperin, Rameau, Byrd, and Purcell, among others of less renown. Yet it is the all-inclusive nature of these recordings that give them credibility as a reflection of the period, for listeners of the Baroque era were just as immersed in the works of minor composers, such as Castello, Veracini, Muffat, Pisendel, Rebel, Leclair, Jenkins, and Baltzar, as they were with their more celebrated contemporaries. Violinist Rachel Barton Pine, viola da gambist John Mark Rozendaal, and harpsichordist/organist David Schrader perform on all four discs, so the consistency and high quality of their playing can be attributed to their long-term collaboration.

– All Music Guide (Blair Sanderson)