Continuo Connect — Concert // George and Alastair Ross: Father and Son

George Ross is a member of the Consone Quartet, the first period instrument string quartet to be selected as BBC New Generation Artists. Last summer the Quartet premièred a string sextet by Gavin Bryars, commissioned by Penny Wright and Andrew Neubauer, performing alongside colleagues Renée Hemsing and Guy Fishman. George performed Schumann’s Cello Concerto at the English Haydn Festival and also gave a number of Father-Son duo recitals centred around the Six sonatas, opus 5 for cello and harpsichord by Francesco Geminiani which you will be hearing today. Their album, recorded on the Deux-Elles label, was released in April this year!

This year George's father Alastair Ross continues his fifty-year career as a freelance harpsichordist and organist by playing with The Sixteen and The Academy of Ancient Music. He is thrilled to be playing this recital with George, and thrilled about the recent release of their CD. Last December he and his soprano wife Gilly gave the opening recital on a restored 1792 Samuel Green organ in Lacey Green, near their home in High Wycombe. He has plans to return there, to play more chamber music with his colleagues Alison Bury and flute and recorder player Rachel Beckett, and of course to play more concerts with George!

Francesco Geminiani was perhaps best known in his day as a virtuoso violinist. His treatise on The Art of Playing on the Violin (1751) remained hugely influential throughout the 18th century. On his arrival in London in 1714, Geminiani achieved immediate success. He performed for the king, accompanied by Handel, during which he introduced himself as a student of Corelli. With his op.4 violin sonatas, followed by these cello sonatas (op.5), it’s clear that Geminiani had broken out into an entirely new and unique language, bursting with vivacity and emotion.