We went back over the catalogue of album releases and could not be more proud of the impressive range and quality of the recordings Continuo Foundation has supported since 2021.

What stood out to us was the level of dedication, thought and scholarship that is so clearly behind the creation of each album, from works by household names to those by little-known composers. This is a testament to our grantees' passion for this wonderfully rich and varied repertory, and we hope that through listening to some of these gorgeous musical offerings, you might find as much inspiration as we have!

John Frederick Lampe: The Dragon of Wantley

The Brook Street Band
This recording of John Frederick Lampe’s ballad opera The Dragon of Wantley, for Resonus Classics, won the BBC Music Magazine Opera Award 2023.

Purchase the CD on the Resonus website

Handel: La Resurrezione

The English Concert
La Resurrezione, composed by Handel in his mid-twenties, and first performed on Easter Sunday 1708, marked the climax of Handel’s time in Rome.

Purchase the CD on The English Concert website

The Library of a Prussian Princess

Ensemble Augelletti
A beautiful, at times vigorous and sensuous, and always historically fascinating album centred on Anna Amalia, Princess of Prussia, Abbess of Quedlinburg (and sister of Frederick the Great).

Purchase the CD at Barn Cottage Records

Mozart’s Bassoon

Peter Whelan and Ensemble Marsyas present a fresh look at the two surviving works by Mozart for the bassoon: Concerto K. 191 and Sonata K. 292. These attractive early works were most likely composed during the composer’s time in Salzburg.

Purchase the CD at Out Here Music

Johann Jakob Walther: Scherzi da violin

The Illyria Consort
Johann Jakob Walther was one of the most significant violinists in Germany in the generation before J.S. Bach, and Bojan Čičić believes his music should be essential listening for anyone seeking a fuller understanding of Bach’s polyphonic writing for the instrument.

Purchase the CD at Delphian Records

Forza Azzuri!

La Serenissima
Following on from their first complete album of Brescianello, Forza Azzurri! is a feast of lesser-known Italian Baroque instrumental music by Dall’abaco, Brescianello, Sammartini, Vivaldi and Zavateri.

Purchase the CD on La Serenissima's website

Handel: Amadigi di Gaula

Early Opera Company
Amadigi is considered the finest of Handel’s early London operas in terms of musical sophistication, theatrical pacing, and a perfectly balanced exploration of the interconnected relationships, motivations, and emotional divergences among just four dissimilar, yet equally arresting, characters.

Purchase the CD on the Early Opera Company website

Haydn: Symphonies 6, 7, 8 ‘Le matin’ ‘Le midi’ ‘Le soir’

Florilegium
As symphonies for a small chamber orchestra, all three exploit the solo skills of each of Florilegium’s principals, from flute to double bass, not to mention heroic horns and spectacular violin and cello solos, each vividly characterised in an almost operatic way.

Purchase the CD on Florilegium's website

Tom & Will

The King’s Singers, Fretwork
In 1623, England lost two of its greatest composers: William Byrd and Thomas Weelkes. In a programme marking this double 400th anniversary, The King’s Singers and Fretwork turned their focus to the bold personalities of these two men, Tom and Will.

Purchase the CD at Signum Records

Beethoven: Piano Trios Op.1 No.3, Op.11 & Op.44

Rautio Piano Trio
This album was the culmination of the Rautio Trio’s project charting the evolution of the piano trio from its emergence in the mid-eighteenth century, with the music of J.C. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, Mozart and Haydn, through to Beethoven’s complex and mature realisation of the genre.

Purchase the CD at Resonus Classics

Bach’s Goldberg Variations Reimagined

Rachel Podger, Chad Kelly, Brecon Baroque
Bach’s outpouring of beauty in the Goldberg Variations has long captured audiences' imagination - composer Chad Kelly reimagined these works for Rachel Podger and her fleet Brecon Baroque ensemble, preserving the work’s exquisite intricacy whilst adding breadth, texture and colour to its emotional backdrop.

Purchase the CD at Out Here Music

Mozart: Mass in C minor / C. P. E. Bach: Heilig ist Gott

Dunedin Consort
Devised to celebrate his marriage to Constanze, but left unfinished at the composer’s death, Mozart’s Great Mass can clearly be traced back to the choral writing of J.S. Bach and his son, Carl Phillip Emmanuel. This musical genealogy is displayed here in a lavish double-chorus, double-orchestra feast where the two works echo each other.

Purchase the CD on the Dunedin Consort website

Irlandiani's Smock Alley

Irlandiani
This album draws inspiration from the musical life of 18th century Dublin at the Smock Alley Theatre and its neighbourhood; exploring connections between Italian and Irish musicians working there with the atmospheric, rich and earthy sound of multiple bass instruments.

Purchase the CD at First Hand Records

What Joy So True - anthems and motets by Thomas Weelkes

Rose Consort of Viols, Chichester Cathedral Choir
400 years since the death of Thomas Weelkes, the Rose Consort of Viols and the Choir of Chichester Cathedral perform his music in the building where he was organist and ‘informator choristarum’ (Master of the Choristers): pieces for both domestic and sacred performance, with anthems, pavans and In nomines for viols.

Purchase the CD at Regent Records

Schütz: A German in Venice

Brook Street Band
Although he lived most of his long life in Germany, in his twenties Schütz made two visits to Venice. The two trips greatly influenced Schütz’s music as he absorbed and began to combine the ornate and theatrical Venetian style with the more understated Lutheran tradition in which he grew up. This album explores Heinrich Schütz's solo cantatas alongside examples of his brilliant and virtuosic Venetian-style instrumental music.

Purchase the CD on the Brook Street Band's website

An Enlightened Heart

Galliarda
The eighteenth century saw a gradual transformation in the status of women as performers and composers. This album presents songs and sonatas by Elisabetta Gamberini (1731-65), Anna Amalia von Preussen (1723-87), Ana Bon (1730-67) and Marie Antoinette (1755-1793).

Purchase the CD at Tremula Records

Johann Christoph Pepusch: Chandos Anthems

The Harmonious Society of Tickle-Fiddle Gentlemen
Although the title Chandos Anthems frequently brings to mind Handel, these anthems were composed in 1719 by Pepusch, a Berlin native who became the Director of Music at the Duke of Chandos' estate, Cannons. This album was selected by Gramophone as an Editor's Choice of the best new classical recordings, January 2024.

Purchase the CD at Presto Music

The Spohr Collection, Vol.3

Florilegium
Ashley Solomon performs on nine different original 18th Century flutes from Peter Spohr's private collection. An exploration of repertoire from Italy, Germany and England, each work matches historically and geographically with the flute Ashley plays.

Purchase all three volumes on the Florilegium website

Orazio Benevoli: Missa Tu Es Petrus - Mass for Four Choirs

I Fagiolini, The City Musick
In mid-17th century Rome, Orazio Benevoli brilliantly invigorated the multi-choir style. This recording by I Fagiolini and The City Musick presents one of the greatest of these works.

Purchase the CD on the I Fagiolini website

The Madrigal Reimagined

Monteverdi String Band
The Madrigal Reimagined opens a window on how musicians exploited the madrigal’s charm, poignancy and flexibility, with settings ranging from intimate solos to grand operatic scenes.

Purchase the CD at Resonus Classics

Handel in Rome

Nardus Williams, John Butt, Dunedin Consort
Handel in Rome explores a key phase in Handel’s early career, when his time in the Eternal City significantly shaped his compositional style. Under the direction of John Butt, and in soprano Nardus Williams' recording debut, the Dunedin Consort presents three of Handel’s Italian cantatas, written during his Roman sojourn.

Purchase the CD at Presto Music

The Art of Obligato

Obligato
In The Art of Obligato, violinist Davina Clarke explores the nuanced relationship between violin and voice in arias from Bach’s cantatas. This recording features Clarke alongside tenor Nick Pritchard and countertenor Hugh Cutting, with instrumentalists Tom Foster (keyboards), Sergio Bucheli (theorbo), and Alexander Rolton (cello), as well as fellow violinist Kati Debretzeni.

Purchase the CD at Proper Music

Upcoming recordings:

Look out for these latest Continuo-supported recordings which will be released soon!

Secrets of Andalusia

Lux Musicae
This album seeks to explore the evolution of Flamenco by tracing its influences through Arabic music alongside Sephardic song and the Spanish composers of the late-16th to 18th centuries. It will be released in full on 24 January 2025, but one track was already released in October, and several more tracks will be available to stream before the release date in the new year.

Pre-order the CD at Proper Music

Newe Vialles, Old Viols

Newe Vialles
Newe Vialles, Old Viols offers a meticulously crafted exploration of 17th-century English music for two historical bass viols and continuo. It features works by prominent composers for the viol, including John Jenkins and Christopher Simpson, alongside lesser-known pieces by Daniel Norcombe, William Young and Benjamin Hely.

This recording will be available to purchase soon at Barn Cottage Records

The Edward Lewis Viol of 1703

Henrik Persson
Henrik Persson also features on this recording of remarkable, evocative solo viol music, by Hely, Brown, Telemann, Hume and others, performed on the priceless Edward Lewis viol from 1703. It includes dances and other works from the 1738 Williamsburg Musick Song Book – the only known compositions for viola da gamba in an 18th century American source.

This recording will be available to purchase soon at Barn Cottage Records