King's Lynn Festival: From Caledonia to the Capital with Duo Hesperi

The award-winning Duo Hesperi, Mary-Jannet Leith (recorders) and Thomas Allery (harpsichord), perform a programme of eighteenth-century music celebrating the musical relationships between the two vibrant musical capitals of the British Isles, London and Edinburgh.

Scottish and English musicians trod a well-worn musical circuit between the two cities in the 1700s, and in fact many Scottish composers settled in London, where they pursued successful careers as music sellers, performers and teachers. One of these was James Oswald, a dancing-master from a Fife who ran a music shop on the Strand, and was appointed Chamber Composer to George III after many years of patronage from his father, Frederick Louis. Highlights of the programme include airs from Oswald’s collections of Airs for the Seasons, each of which is named after a flower or plant. These gems will appear alongside music by more familiar contemporaries, including a sparkling sonata by Handel, and a harpsichord solo by the celebrated Charles Burney.