"PLAYING THE PICTURE"
Blending art and music, The Brook Street Band brings to life the music and musicians depicted in 18th century paintings by Hogarth and Gainsborough. Each picture offers a mystery to solve: what is the manuscript lying on the table, or artfully placed on the shelf, and why is it there? Music by Handel and his contemporaries brings to life these artworks, as Brook Street Band unravels the stories behind the paintings, players and music.

Extras: refreshments included as well as a chance to meet with the artist.

BROOK STREET BAND

The Brook Street Band - ‘ensemble so pin-sharp it merits a safety warning’ (BBC Music Magazine) - is named after the London street where Handel lived. Formed in 1997 by baroque cellist Tatty Theo, it rapidly established itself as leading Handel specialists, winning grants, awards, and broadcasting opportunities from organisations including Radio 3 and the Handel Institute. The Band enjoys an unusually stable core-membership, its players working together for over twenty years; this longevity has enabled them to develop a style of music-making that is precise and spontaneous, musicians able to react instinctively to each other and play as one.

Whilst eighteenth-century chamber repertoire has always been the Band’s driving passion, BSB also relishes collaborations with conductors, choirs, and venues on larger-scaled works by Handel and his contemporaries, such as its Dragon of Wantley project, which won the 2023 BBC Music Magazine Opera award. It also savours the chance to explore earlier seventeenth-century repertoire, composers including Corelli, Rossi, Monteverdi, Schütz, Biber and Buxtehude, with an entire festival for St. John’s Smith Square dedicated to Muffat’s music and influence.

The Band performs and teaches throughout the UK and Europe, with future projects in development for the USA. It has established love:Handel, its own critically acclaimed biennial music festival, incorporating wide-ranging educational work supported through its charitable trust. Its most recent festival (“The quality of the musicianship and sheer enthusiasm of the Band was a joy”) took place in October 2023. BSB played a central role in the world’s first ever ‘Handeliades’, immersive 4-day events of concerts, masterclasses and talks given by world-renowned Handel experts in 2021 and 2023, promoted by The Handel House Trust.

The Band broadcasts for Radio 3 and Classic FM and its extensive discography has been singled out for high praise, accolades including Gramophone Magazine Editor’s Choice and inclusion in the chamber music/small ensemble category at the GRAMMYs. It’s next recording Heinrich Schütz – A German in Venice is released on 19 April 2024. The Band is delighted to have received funding for this from the Continuo Foundation.