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| Elisabetta da Gamberini |
Handel, Elisabetta de Gambarini, Geminiani, Carlo Tessarini; Mhairi Lawson, Academy of Historical Music led by Bojan Čičić; Milton Courtroom Live performance Corridor
Reviewed by Tony Cooper, 12 March 2026
The Academy of Historical Music plunges deep into the colorful world of Elisabetta da Gambarini – composer, virtuoso and entrepreneur in addition to the primary lady ever to publish music in England
The Academy of Historical Music’s tribute to Elisabetta da Gambarini and her contemporaries proved an pleasing and unforgettable present with a superb programme exploring the colourful musical panorama of Georgian London showcasing the affect of immigrant musicians and the pioneering position of ladies engaged in 18th-century music-making.
Relating largely to the late baroque and classical music interval, Gambarini (who lived for under 33 years from 1731 to 1765) achieved distinction by being an all-round musician acting on and composing for quite a lot of devices in addition to voice. Her compositions have been identified to replicate that of vocal work as a substitute of instrumental patterns.
Born on 7th September 1731 in Holles Avenue, Marylebone, Elisabetta Gambarini’s father, Charles Gambarini, acted as Counsellor to the Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel. He died in 1754 whereas his spouse Joanna (Giovanna Paula) Stradiotti died in 1774. A nobleman from Lucca, Italy, her father revealed A Description of the Earl of Pembroke’s Photos 1731 whereas her mom, of comparable standing from Dalmatia, is believed to have been a tutor to the the Aristocracy.
The third of 4 kids, Elisabetta (who on twentieth March 1764 married Etienne Chazal at St Martin-in-the-Fields) was the one sibling surviving to maturity. She died at her dwelling in Fortress Courtroom, Strand, within the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields, on 9th February 1765 and was interred at St James’ Church, Piccadilly, 5 days later – 14th February.
Though there’s no particular info relating to her formal musical schooling there’s hypothesis that Gambarini could have studied with Francesco Geminiani, composer of The Enchanted Forest, a baroque orchestral work impressed by Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata typically carried out with dance thereby depicting a mystical perilous forest.
Starting her profession singing Handel’s An Occasional Oratorio, Gambarini additionally took half and carried out because the First Israelite Lady within the first efficiency in Judas Maccabaeus whereas her identify additionally seems in scores of Handel’s Samson and Messiah.
By 1748, her status allowed her to publish music in her personal proper due to this fact Gambarini grew to become the primary feminine composer in Britain to publish a set of keyboard music with The Six Units of Classes for the Harpsichord devoted to Viscountess Howe of the Kingdom of Eire. Later in the identical yr she revealed Classes for the Harpsichord Intermix’d with Italian and English Songs devoted to the Prince of Wales.
All through her profession, Gambarini carried out on the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in addition to on the Live performance Room, Dean Avenue, Soho – now premises of Soho Home. A charitable individual, too, Gambarini typically staged profit concert events showing as composer, harpsichordist, organist and singer.
Fortunately, there was an elevated curiosity of ladies collaborating in music-making in London within the 18th century. Many have been of noble standing and it’s generally identified that through the classical interval the variety of ladies concerned in home music-making elevated considerably due to the recognition of singing and taking part in the piano.
Music was thought-about a social accomplishment for girls which mirrored on the gentility of 1’s household gently filling their leisure time driving away boredom and dissatisfaction and within the case of a younger ladies it might effectively be an asset in procuring a husband.
Newbie musicians in addition to fully-trained professionals have been collaborating in concert events whereas younger girls grew to become concerned in music by intimate concert events of their properties and later as court docket musicians. They sang and performed the lute or the harpsichord for his or her personal amusement and sometimes retained a small quota of musicians for their very own leisure.
By their nature the lute and the harpsichord have been ample in supporting the participant’s voice. And taking part in bowed-string devices was much less interesting due to the unladylike place required for taking part in the bigger bowed-string devices. Due to this fact, many ladies took up the smallest member of the viol household, the high-pitched instrument, pardessus.
Because the 18th century progressed, the social class of ladies who composed music (and what they selected to compose) dramatically modified. Whereas girls within the seventeenth century wrote easy songs for his or her households and associates, the daughters of those composers steadily started composing in additional bold genres equivalent to sacred and secular cantatas in addition to opera, ballet and even oratorio.
The higher participation of ladies in music, historically related completely with males, is basically attributable to political and social adjustments throughout Europe within the early- to mid-18th century. Important and far-reaching developments in music are additionally credited to the invention of the piano.
From its inception the lied constituted a kind of chamber music and as such fitted comfortably in a home surroundings, a setting during which ladies had lengthy been accepted as performers in stark distinction to public locations of leisure which have been ‘off-limits’ to them.
Nonetheless, there have been no ‘off-limits’ to anybody within the Academy of Historical Music’s high-quality and uplifting live performance at Milton Courtroom, admirably led by Croatian-born violinist, Bojan Čičić, a specialist within the late-Sixteenth/Nineteenth-century repertoire.
With Handel’s well-loved aria from Half I of his famed oratorio, Judas Maccabaeus (‘Pious orgies, pious airs’) they opened the present in a grand type witnessing the famend coloratura soprano, Mhairi Lawson, placing in an unhurried and detailed efficiency completely becoming this solemn reflective piece telling of an Israelite lady’s emotional and non secular response of Jewish oppression and their plea to the Almighty.
The lyrics communicate of holy, solemn and quiet rituals (pious airs) and respectful mourning (first rate sorrow) rising to God however the phrase ‘orgies’ used on this sense, could I add, refers to passionate acts of worship relatively than its modern-day connotation.
Orchestrated music from Elisabetta de Gambarini’s Six Units of Classes for the Harpsichord adopted – the primary assortment of keyboard works ever revealed by a lady within the British Isles. For this efficiency by AAM, they have been provided in enticing new preparations by Rachel Stroud who, current on the live performance, introduced out the lightness and clear tonality of Gambarini’s inimitable type of writing.
Altogether, they supplied a relatively good assortment of 4 very agreeable items comprising ‘March’, 2nd motion from Sonata IV in G main; ‘Grazioso’, 1st motion from Sonata II in D main; ‘Siciliana Andante’, 2nd motion from Sonata V in A minor and the final motion from Sonata II in D main which discovered Bojan Čičić and his band of followers on prime kind.
The baroque grasp – who’s none aside from George Frideric Handel – bounced again on the invoice with a relatively grand and fulfilling merchandise from Judas Maccabaeus entitled ‘Come, ever-smiling liberty’ to a libretto by Thomas Morell that includes Mhairi Lawson, who, by the way, was soloist in the entire objects acknowledged on the programme by Handel whereas Francesco Geminiani’s Concerto Grosso in B flat main magnificently delivered to an finish the primary half of a really entertaining and fascinating live performance. A virtuosic Italian violinist, composer and theorist of standing, Geminiani is well-known for his treatise The Artwork of Enjoying on the Violin.
A late-baroque multi-movement orchestral work for strings, Geminiani’s Concerto Grosso is characterised by its complicated multi-part construction within the type of a ‘galant’, a lightweight, elegant and accessible 18th-century musical type that provided a departure from the strict counterpoint of earlier baroque music favouring lighter extra song-like melodies punctuated by a number of decorative and expressive passages and easy lyrical melodies.
Carlo Tessarini’s three-movement work – Ouverture in D main ‘La Stravaganza’ – options bar after bar of spirited virtuosic writing for strings and continuo and within the secure fingers of AAM’s vibrant bunch of gamers they most positively captured the composer’s vibrant and energetic writing in a marvellous efficiency thereby representing the custom and virtuosity of the Venetian faculty whereas Handel’s lyrical and uplifting aria ‘O liberty, thou choicest treasure’ from An Occasional Oratorio – initially supposed for Judas Maccabaeus – represented and supported the Hanoverian monarchy.
A largely patriotic non-dramatic work it was composed in haste to have a good time the crushing of the 1745 Jacobite revolt led by Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) in a remaining try and reclaim the British throne for the Catholic Stuart dynasty from the Protestant Home of Hanover.
Including to the general enjoyment of AAM’s thrilling live performance was the inclusion of Carlo Tessarini’s Violin Concerto in A minor, a piece forming a part of a set of 12 revealed works circa 1730 characterised by the Italian virtuoso type of taking part in influenced by Vivaldi during which Bojan Čičić confirmed off supremely effectively capturing, too, the essence, spirit and high-quality element of the intricate type of 18th-century Italian violin writing.
The final objects from Elisabetta de Gambarini got here from Classes and Songs that includes ‘Behold and Hear’ (Track I); Canzonetta: ‘Se mai fosse la mia forte’ (Track IV); Minuet in A significant (Lesson III)
A delicate light-hearted English music ‘Behold and Hear’ varieties a part of a set devoted to Frederick, Prince of Wales whereas the music – highlighting the Italianate vocal type of the period – was revealed in 1748 as a part of a set that helped cement Gambarini’s status as a distinguished feminine composer in 18th-century London.
An exquisite vocal piece additionally got here with ‘Se mai fosse la mia forte’, particularly recognized as a ‘canzonetta’ included in Gambarini’s XII English & Italian Songs for a German Flute and Thorough Bass. Typically described within the context of Gambarini’s ‘English Impresaria’ repertoire, the work options each Italian and English influences and was extraordinarily pleasing.
Forming a part of Classes for the Harpsichord, Gambarini’s Minuet in A significant provided a pleasant piece for harpsichord in a set revealed throughout her lifetime. A baroque-style courtly dance it was performed with such a swish and average tempo and completely fitted the orchestra’s musical intelligence and prowess.
The final ‘shout’ in what was a superb programme was gifted to Handel with the triumphal ‘March’ from Judas Maccabaeus carried out triumphally by AAM whose gamers have been relishing the event judging by their physique language.
A separate full-length oratorio Joseph and His Brethren, composed by Handel three years sooner than Judas Maccabaeus in 1743 to a libretto by James Miller, tells the Previous Testomony story from Genesis specializing in Joseph’s time in Egypt, his reconciliation together with his brothers and his reunion together with his father, Jacob.
The work’s famend for being a humane biblical household drama relatively than a heroic army story and harbours the beautiful and alluring aria ‘Prophetic raptures swell my breast’ heard within the final act representing the joyous ‘conquering hero’ theme inside this rhythmic and triumphant work written for the character, Asenath.
Magnificently sung by Ms Lawson, her virtuosic coloratura passages have been pleasurable as ever thus punctuating a blinding showpiece expressing the character’s joyful and divinely-inspired instinct that the present troubles everyone seems to be going through will quickly move with higher days on the horizon.
In his infinite knowledge, Handel added a musical pun in direction of the top of the oratorio specializing in the phrase ‘swell’ using the classical-singing approach ‘messa di voce’ the place a vocalist sustains a single pitch starting very softly steadily swelling to a loud quantity and lowering again to the unique quantity.
An thrilling piece, for positive, it’s peppered by a number of exact and fast vocal runs which Ms Lawson took all in her stride. Her vocal high quality, breath management and evenness of tone was paramount to the general enjoyment of her participating efficiency particularly within the aria’s fast-moving passages whereas the fragile moments which construct to the highly effective and forceful climax was actually magic thus ending a completely good live performance by the Academy of Historical Music and, certainly, an excellent evening within the tranquil and interesting atmosphere of Milton Courtroom Live performance Corridor. Hurrah!
Handel: Judas Maccabaeus, HWV63 (1746) Overture: ‘Pious orgies’
Elisabetta de Gambarini: orchestrated music from ‘Six Units of Classes for the Harpsichord’, Op.1 (c.1747): ‘March’, 2nd motion from Sonata IV in G main; Grazioso, 1st motion from Sonata II in D main; Siciliana Andante, 2nd motion from Sonata V in A minor; final motion from Sonata II in D main (arr. Rachel Stroud)
Handel: Judas Maccabaeus, HWV63 ‘Come, ever-smiling liberty’
Francesco Geminiani: Concerto Grosso in B flat main, Op.7, No.6 (1746)
Carlo Tessarini: Ouverture in D main ‘La Stravaganza’, Op.4 (1736)
Handel: ‘O liberty’ from An Occasional Oratorio, HWV62
Carlo Tessarini: Violin Concerto in A minor, Op.1, No.7 (1716)
Elisabetta de Gambarini: Classes and Songs, Op.2 (1748): ‘Behold and Hear’ (Track I); Canzonetta: ‘Se mai fosse la mia forte’ (Track IV); Minuet in A significant (Lesson III)
Handel: ‘March’ from Judas Maccabaeus, HWV63
Handel: ‘Prophetic raptures’ from Joseph and His Brethren, HWV59 (1744)
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