Ensemble Diderot - The London and Paris albums review | Andrew Clements's classical album of the week

The Guardian 80

(Audax, two CDs, available separately)
The baroque music of the two cities is sparklingly realised by Ensemble Diderot, but Paris wins in terms of innovation

As its name, and strikingly designed album covers using images from the Encylopédie indicate, the Paris-based Ensemble Diderot specialise in the music of the European Enlightenment. With a lineup of two violins, cello or viola da gamba and harpsichord, led by Johannes Pramsohler, the group is dedicated to exploring the baroque trio sonatas of the late 17th and 18th centuries. On their latest releases, the emphasis is very much on the earlier part of that historical range; the London Album brings together pieces composed in the capital before 1680, while its Paris counterpart shifts the cut-off point forward 20 years to the end of the century, and to the music written after the death of Lully in 1687.