Luogo e data di registrazione		Henry Wood Hall, London (Inghilterra) - febbraio 1979 & marzo 1984 (Avison)
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Engineer		Andreas Holschneider - Charlotte Kriesch (Avison) / Karl-August Naegler - Hans-Peter Schweigmann (Avison)
	Prima Edizione LP		- Archiv - 2533 423 - (1 lp) - durata 50' 58" - (p) 1978 - Analogico - (A Grand Concert of Musick - intero) - Archiv - 415 518-1 - (1 cd) - durata 64' 52" - (p) 1985 - Digitale - (Avison - parziale)
	Edizione "Collectio" CD		Archiv - 437 088-2 - (1 cd) - durata 63' 59" - (c) 1986 - ADD/DDD
	Note		-

A GRAND CONCERT OF MUSICK When, in 1710, Handel arrived in London on his first visit he found a society sympathetic to music’s cause but without a figure-head. Purcell had died fifteen years before and the new generation of indigenous English composers was as yet embryonic. Boyce, Arne, Stanley and Avison all were born within five years of one another, between 1709 and 1713, so it was not until the 1730s that the music of these composers could be considered as beginning to represent a national style. None the less during the early decades of the 18th century London was a centre of great musical activity, both public and private. The same was true also of Paris and of many German cities. The “Concert Spirituel”, originally intended for the playing of suitable music during Lent, was inaugurated in Paris in 1725. During the next 25 years these concerts expanded both in repertoire and in season, attracting the talents of the hnest French composers of the period. Philidor, Mouret and Rebel were among the directors of the “Concerts Spirituels”, Lalande and Leclair among the most celebrated musicians associated with them. Similar concerts, too, were established in other French towns and cities. In Germany enthusiasm for musical entertainment of this kind was no less and societies thrived under musicians who, like Telemann, for instance, possessed unusual energy, diligence, imagination and flair. Telemann founded a “Collegium Musicum” in Frankfurt-on-the-Oder (1713) and in Leipzig (c. 1701) where, nearly 30 years later, Johann Sebastian Bach became its director of music. In Hamburg, too, public concerts were taking place in the “Drillhaus” from the earliest years of the 18th century. The taste for music-making of this variety was less developed in Italy and took a rather different form, often being the responsibility of charitable organizations and of aristocratic patronage, rather than of bourgeois society. In viewing English musical life during the early 18th century we should not ignore the place or the influence of patronage. Nevertheless, it was not dependable in the sense that, for instance, Rameau could depend upon the wealth of his patron, the Fermiergeneral, Le Riche de la Poupeliniere. Handel, himself, knew only too well how aristocratic whim, upon which fashion relied, could change his fortunes overnight. London, though, had its societies, its academies and its music rooms in much the same way as did similar organizations on the continent; the principal difference in London, however, from its European counterparts, was the influential sway held by foreign artists. At least from the death of Purcell in 1695 English taste had turned towards Italy rather than to France or Germany. John Evelyn, making an entry in his diary as early as 1674 (19 November) records his impressions of an Italian virtuoso, revealing also his predilection for Italian music as well as for Italian players: “I heard that stupendious Violin Signor Nicholao (with other rare Musitians) whom certainly never mortal man Exceeded on that Instrument: he had a stroak so sweete, & made it speake like the Voice of a man; & when he pleased, like a Consort of severall Instruments: he did wonders upon a note: was an excellent Composer also: here was also that rare Lutinist Dr. Wallgrave: but nothing approch’s the Violin in Nicholas [sic] hand: he seem’d to be spiritato’d & plaied such ravishing things on a ground as astonish’d us all.” The virtuoso in question was Nicola Matteis, a celebrated violinist from Italy. It is possible that it was through Matteis that Corelli’s music first became known in England; certainly by the end of the 17th century Corelli’s music was appearing in print in London. It was surely, too, the Italian bias in taste that enabled Geminiani to enjoy much popularity, if not security, during his many years in England; and it was doubtless the Italian elements in Handel’s music which made widest appeal in a community where Corelli was regarded a paragon of musical virtue. Indeed, it might be considered, in retrospect, to have been an adverse handicap to English composers growing up in the mid-18th century that the aristocracy showed such a marked leaning towards the activities of Continental musicians. On the other hand we should not forget that it was in a large part owing to Purcell’s exceptional powers of synthesis to which he subjected many foreign elements that England was able to appreciate Handel and to offer a new generation of composers a musical climate sympathetic to continental traditions. What is beyond speculation, though, is the popularity with which England was regarded by itinerant musicians: “he who in the present time wants to make a profit out of music betakes himself to England” wrote Mattheson in 1713 (Das Neu-Eröffnete Orchestre). It can be seen from this background sketch that the London in which Arne, Boyce and Stanley grew up was in no sense a musical backwater but a flourishing community comprising some of the best European performers and a handful of its composers as well. Nicholas Anderson