Thoughtfulness and Insight

RODERIC DUNNETT was at
Armonico Consort's 'The Marriage of Figaro'

Since their opening concert in 2001 the Armonico Consort and Orchestra of the Baroque, based in Warwick, UK, and directed by Christopher Monks, former organ scholar of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and assistant to David Hill at Winchester Cathedral, have embarked on an almost exhausting schedule, which has catapulted them into the front rank of British period instrument ensembles.

Dame Emma Kirkby (who sang in their very first concert) and James Bowman are among their regular collaborators: it was with Kirkby that they pioneered the music of the lesser-known Francesco Scarlatti (born c1668, the brother of Alessandro and uncle of Domenico), whose Dixit Dominus, a work of freshness and marked originality, was conducted by Monks for the première recording on the Deux-Elles label (DXL 1096).

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