Daniel Hope's Baroque Journey

Herewith a quick shout-out to Daniel Hope, fine British violinist and conductor, on the release of his new recording on the Deutsche Grammophon label, "Air: A Baroque Journey."  Hope has assembled a group of talented collaborators for a survey of Baroque instrumental music covering virtually the entire period of the Baroque era (late 16th century through mid 18th century), in richly expressive performances.  Although some of the pieces are those one would expect to find in such a survey (e.g., Pachelbel's Canon, J.S. Bach's Air from Suite No. 3, Handel's Sarabande), others are pretty far off the beaten path (e.g., music by Nicola Matteis and Johann Paul von Westhoff).  There are some prominent names missing in action -- I would say most prominently Vivaldi and Monteverdi -- but one does get a good idea of the range of invention from that period of musical history, and vast entertainment at the same time.

Actually, this is a more mainstream version of what the British early music group Red Priest has been doing over the past decade with their baroque collections.  The difference is that Red Priest rearranges the music for its own idiosyncratic quartet set-up with recorders, violin, cello and harpsichord, and takes interpretive liberties for expressive or programmatic purposes that stretch their performances beyond what some (not all) music critics can tolerate, thus setting off an amusing war of the words in the most recent letters to the editor section of Fanfare magazine between a member of the Red Priest group and critic Jerry Dubins.  Dubins affects outrage and dismisses Red Priest's work as not recommendable to serious music collectors.  I differ, finding their productions quite entertaining despite the occasional forays beyond the current mainstream views.  Hope's new collection avoids crossing those lines, while injecting plenty of personality and even some creative rearranging to accommodate his small string ensemble.  Red Priest's most recent release, a Bach anthology, is well worth hearing and very enjoyable, but nothing on it is quite so accomplished as Hope's rendition of the Air from Suite No. 3, which ends his program on a definite high.