The Pleasures of the Imagination

On this new album, our exclusive artist Sophie Yates focuses on English harpsichord music, after successful French and Spanish recordings and a highly praised Handel series, among much else.

As she explains: ‘With this anthology, I hope to give an overview of English keyboard music during the course of the eighteenth century. Two significant figures cast their long shadows over this period of music in England: the first of these is Henry Purcell, whose legacy dominated the beginning of the century; the second is George Frideric Handel, who embodies the idea of eighteenth-century English music for so many. However, this recital explores the work of the other English composers who, in their various ways, wove the fabric of the musical scene in London at a time when it was the most vibrant city in Europe.’

From the influence of Purcell in the opening pieces by his pupil John Blow to the distinctive harmonic language of the concluding Sonata by Johann Christian Bach, this recital spans a century of forgotten yet immensely diverse English music for the harpsichord.