The English Baroque

In the Baroque period, England was not the musical center of Europe. Although it had its own musical traditions, it eagerly absorbed imported styles-Italian, French, and German-and adapted them in its own way. That is precisely what gives English Baroque music its unique character: it’s a music of influences, of choices, of responses. English Baroque is Baroque by reception.

This evening’s program brings together familiar and lesser-known names: Henry and Daniel Purcell, John Blow, William Babell, and George Frideric Händel. All of them were part of a musical world that welcomed continental forms – like the Italian sonata and the French suite and gave them a distinctly English flavor. Sometimes restrained, sometimes ornate, sometimes elegantly minimal. In England, musical progress wasn’t the priority – good taste was. And good taste gladly borrowed from abroad.

It’s important to remember that many of these pieces were not written out note for note. Ornamentation, cadenzas, and improvised transitions were integral to performance. William Babell, in particular, a harpsichordist and violinist, became known for his brilliant arrangements of popular themes. His versions of works by Händel and Corelli are not mere copies; they are variations, commentaries, sometimes even remixes. In the Baroque, the performer was not a passive transmitter-they were a co-creator.

The duo FORA – Olivia Petryszak (recorders) and Matthew Brown (harpsichord, organ) – approaches this repertoire with the same spirit: not to reproduce, but to participate. The program includes both English and continental works. All of them come together as part of a single story – about music that travels, changes context, changes form, and stays alive precisely because it allows itself to be free.