London Baroque

Among ensembles specializing in Baroque chamber music, London Baroque enjoys an exceptional reputation and widespread acclaim. Its repertory spans both well-known and little-explored compositions dating from the late sixteenth century through the middle of the eighteenth. The core group comprises two violinists, a cellist, and a keyboard player, though extra instrumentalists or singers are added when needed. Most of its numerous recordings have appeared on the Harmonia Mundi and BIS labels, while frequent radio and television broadcasts have introduced the ensemble to audiences across Europe.

The ensemble was established in 1978 by Austrian-born violinist Ingrid Seifert and cellist Charles Medlam. Original keyboardist John Toll is recognized as a co-founder despite joining after the initial planning, and he remained until 1995; Terence Charlston succeeded him. Violinist Richard Gwilt became a member in 1984. Whenever supplementary forces are engaged, Charles Medlam serves as director.

During its first decade the group presented 528 concerts, thereafter maintaining an annual schedule of roughly fifty engagements that have taken it throughout Europe, Asia, the United States, and more distant locales. Early performances quickly attracted notice both at home and abroad. Between the 1980s and 1990s the ensemble produced twenty discs for Harmonia Mundi, among them a two-CD collection of Purcell’s Trio Sonatas, Marais’ La Gamme, and separate albums devoted to trio sonatas by Handel and J. S. Bach. These releases earned strong critical and popular approval.

In 2000 London Baroque moved to BIS Records; its inaugural project for the label, a two-disc survey of Vivaldi trio sonatas and additional instrumental pieces, was released that August. By 2005 ten recordings had been completed for BIS, including an anthology of seventeenth-century French trio sonatas featuring music by Lully, François and Louis Couperin, and Marais.