The Parnassian Trio will be offering Baroque Music for a Summer’s Evening

Sophie Middleditch – recorder; Lucy Scotchmer – baroque cello; and David Pollock – harpsichord will combine, with Lucy making her debut with the group, together promising a blend of “charm and virtuosity in a delightful” one-hour programme of baroque music on period instruments featuring Bach, Handel, Telemann, Byrd and other treats. Free entry, with a retiring collection. “The Parnassian Trio is brand new,” David says. “Helen (Hooker, recorder) is not available to us on this occasion and so we're calling ourselves the Parnassian Trio. It is the first time we've worked as a trio and it means that we are able to do slightly different things. Lucy was recommended to us by other colleagues and she has a glittering international career. She's worked with all the main period instrument orchestras and her biography is quite stunning. It's a real pleasure to have her on board just for this concert but we're hoping that things might develop. To have someone new keeps it alive and fresh and exciting and it's also nice to do a new programme. It is baroque music which is my great love and what I do mostly. Bach and Handel and Telemann, those are big names and these are big works. The Bach is going to be the famous Prelude in G unaccompanied cello, but actually Baroque is what drew me to the harpsichord. It's the satisfaction of the music. It is so rich and so deep. I do listen to other music, people like Elgar and Brahms but I prefer to play this wonderful Baroque repertoire. Essentially it's just about the quality of the music. You are dealing with some of the biggest names in western art, and I am also doing some William Byrd, another great love of mine who was slightly earlier.

“The Parnassian Ensemble goes back to 1998 and the idea was to play the trio sonata repertoire which is absolutely colossal and some really great quality music. We usually have the pleasure of Helen's company but she is not with us for this one but that's one of the great joys of baroque music that there so many different permutations. There's so much for solo cello, a massive repertoire; there’s so much for solo harpsichord, again a massive repertoire; and there is so much for solo recorder, again a massive repertoire. There is just so much that you can play.”

For David and his colleagues, it is great to have emerged from the pandemic era: “I do think we're getting back towards normal now. I think things are recovering rapidly but the impact of the pandemic was absolutely devastating for musicians and other industries obviously but now we've got the complications of Brexit, and we will be dealing with the implications of that for quite some time as musicians.”

www.parnassianensemble.com. Part of the Music in Bosham Recital Series 2023.