David Pollock - English Harpsichord Works

Since �Parthenia� (1612/13), �the first musicke that ever was printed for the virginalls�, as its own title-page declares, a devotee had ready access to high-quality English harpsichord music. A steady stream of publications followed as the century progressed. Later, volumes dedicated to single composers appeared of which the earliest were the Choice Collection[s] by Purcell (1696) and Blow (1698). Aside from miscellaneous pieces, often arrangements of �ayres� and �theatre tunes�, the Suite was the principal form, with its standard sequence of alman, coranto and saraband, often introduced by a prelude. David Pollock�s aim with this CD was to offer a personal anthology of English harpsichord music, perhaps imagining himself as a contemporary of William Croft reviewing the previous one hundred and fifty years. David Pollock plays a double-manual harpsichord by Anne and Ian Tucker, Mistley, Essex, 1999, which is a copy of Andreas Ruckers (single-manual, 1636).