Search - John Clerk, Concerto Caledonia, Catherine Bott :: The Lion of Scotland: Cantatas by John Clerk of Penicuick

Here's a perfect "guess-the-composer" recording: is it Monteverdi, is it Bach, is it Purcell? The overall caliber of this music by 18th-century Scottish musician-lawyer-architect-landscape gardener John Clerk, which receives its recorded premiere on this disc, suggests a composer of lesser but respectable talent who infuses his scores with periodic moments of brilliance and masterful vocal writing. Most remarkable is Clerk's pervasive use of number symbolism, a defining structural feature that imbues nearly all of his works with extramusical meaning. Clerk's years of study with Corelli in Rome are evident in his music's many Italianate mannerisms. His works include these solo-voice cantatas, which cover a variety of subjects--love's pains and pleasures, spiritual repentance, a wedding celebration, and Scottish colonization. Soprano Catherine Bott, who often sounds strangely like Emma Kirkby, proves a sensitive and enthusiastic interpreter, ably assisted by the Concerto Caledonia ensemble and a skilled recording team. --David Vernier