00:00 Concerto Grosso in B-flat major: Largo - Allegro - Largo - Allegro - Gavotte
11:20 Concerto Grosso in B minor: Staccato - Largo - Allegro - Adagio - Minuet
(Both edited by Denis Stevens, the former from British Museum Add. Ms. 17836 and the latter from Oxford, Bodleian Library Ms. Mus. Sch. D 230& and published by Hinrichsen Edition, London)

Accademia Monteverdiana - Dennis Stevens, conductor

Although Boyce’s most enduring monument was his historical collection of Cathedral Music, which began publication in 1760 and profoundly influenced "choirs and places where they sing” for the next century and a half, he deserves to be remembered also for his excellent instrumental music. His published sets of Voluntaries and Trio Sonatas were great favorites of their time, and recent re-vivals of his Eight Symphonies (mostly overtures to sacred or secular works of various kinds) and Twelve Overtures (culled from court odes) demonstrate his instinctive feeling for orchestrai color in addition to nobility of contrapuntal thought. The early stages of Boyce’s career were not unlike those of Purcell, Greene, and Handel, where the slender rewards of an organ appointment were helped out by fees from the theatre and the pleasure gardens. Much of Boyce’s orchestral music was performed at Drury Lane, Vauxhall, and Ranelagh, and whenever a complete band was lacking a group of four musicians would play his Trio Sonatas, whose tuneful elegance endeared them to musicians of every class.

There is however one category of his instrumental music that has so far gone unnoticed — his concerti grossi for string orchestra, which were never published in the composer´s lifetime and in fact remained in manuscript until quite recently. The circumstances of their composition cannot be ascertained; but since it was not unusual in the eighteenth century to perform a concerto grosso during the intermissions of an oratorio or cantata, these works may have come into being as interludes for Boyce’s Solomon or for his setting of David’s Lamentation over Saul and Jonathan. Alternatively they could have been written expressly for the Three Choirs Festival, which he conducted in 1737 and subsequently. The orchestrail parts in the Bodleian Library betray signs of frequent usage, with some interchange of movements, and the transposed organ parts suggest a high-pitched continuo instrument by no means unusual in Boyce’s day.

Burney goes to great trouble at one point in his History to praise Boyce’s independence from Handel, yet elsewhere he shows how Boyce borrowed a theme from one of Handel’s arias and used it in his Trio Sonatas. Such borrowings, however, were of little account in an age when composers freely borrowed from their contemporaries and of course from themselves, and in fairness to Boyce it must be admitted that several features of his style give the impression of a vigorous individuality combined with a sincere respect for the best in English musical traditions. Vincent Novello, who owned the score of the B minor concerto, presented it to the British Museum in August, 1849, with a note to the effect that his gift was made "as a tribute of respect to the memory of Dr. Boyce, who in my estimation, for purity of melody, solidity of harmony, and skillful refinement in the construction of his sterling counterpoint, was one of the very best composers of the genuine English school”.

DENIS STEVENS


The Accademia Monteverdiana counts among its founder-members Claudio Arrau, Nadia Boulanger, Yehudi Menuhin, and Igor Stravinsky; and although it is mainly devoted to the dissemination of authentic editions and performances of Monteverdi’s music, its concern for baroque music generally has been shown by the choice of repertoire in its London concerts and international festival appearances. Denis Stevens, who is Artistic Director of the organization, enjoys wide renown as conductor and musicologist: London’s Daily Telegraph described him as "a practical musician as well as a scholar, able to bring the music of his chosen period vividly and convincingly to life,” sentiments which have found a sympathetic echo in many cities of Europe and America.

It should be noted that many of the piquarit antiphonal effects caused by the exchange of motifs between first and second violins can be lost when all the violins are grouped on the conductor’s left, in accordance with modern practice. For this recording, first violins were placed left, seconds right (as they should be) and the stereo separation makes musical sense of their frequent alternation of material.

Musical Heritage Society (MHS 1036) 1966

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