Colley Cibber, the waspish actor-manager at Drury Lane, had a hearty dislike of vogueish Italian opera, and in 1715 set out with his music director, Johann Christoph Pepusch, to “give the town a little good music in a language they understand”. Between them they devised an elaborate masque, Venus and Adonis, recreated here by Robert Rawson with some fine soloists and the fleet-footed Harmonious Society of Tickle-Fiddle Gentlemen, who take their name from a contemporary description of the musicians who played at one of London’s earliest concert series. It’s an immediately engaging and gloriously tuneful piece, employing the “arioso” form to keep a sense of pace in the drama, and taxing the soloists to the limit with some virtuoso coloratura arias. Recommended.
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