The Independant - Album of the Week
Classic FM Magazine

CALLIOPE, Beautiful Voice - Volume the First English Songbooks of the 1700s Emma Curtis, contralto & The Frolick Available, as a 2CD box set with booklet, from www.inklingrecords.com and at iTunes

Emma Curtis & The Frolick invite you back to London, 1739, for an evening of music-making at the height of Handel's fame.   Performing music from the era's most popular songbook, with period instruments and style. More than fifty songs from the opera, theatre, coffee-house, travern, folk and soapbox, including A Favourite Aire by Mr. Handel in Ariadne, England's Lamentation on the Loss of Farinelli and Maurice Greene's The Fly.

Calliope shows a broad and entertaining picture of 18th century London, reflecting the society for which it was collected, allowing us to see and feel the world and the humour in which its songs were born. Each song is its own microcosm of society and style.

With songs by: Arcangello Corelli 1653-1713, Henry Purcell 1659-1695, Sir John Vanbrugh 1664-1726, George Frederick Handel 1685-1759, Allan Ramsay 1686-1758, John Ernest Galliard 1687-1749, Francesco Geminiani 1687-1762, Henry Carey c1690-1743, Henry Holcombe c1693-c1752, Dr. Maurice Green 1696-1755, John Frederick Lampe c1703-1751, Giovanni Battista Pescetti c1704-c1766, David Digard d.1745, George Monro d.1731, William Boyce 1710-1779, Thomas Arne 1710-1778, Jonathan Martin 1715-1737, Henry Burgess fl. 1738-65, Mr. Bowman, Seignr Anglosini and Signor Anonimo.