Here is an unexpected CD, pleasant, even fascinating. When we think of the domination of the British Empire over India, we hardly tend to project ourselves into the very distant past. However, control was established in the 17the century and, at the end of the eighteenthe century, at the time of the French Revolution, large colonies were formed around wealthy traders (“nababs”). Christopher Palameta looked at the musical life of the British in Calcutta around 1780, animated by a certain William Hamilton Bird. The interest of the CD is to show that this was done in two directions: the colony used “domestic” transcriptions of airs by Händel made for harpsichord, oboe or flute, but Bird is also the author of The Oriental Miscellany, collection of 30 Hindustani airs transcribed for harpsichord. Excerpts (too few) are adapted to the ensemble (oboe, flute, violin, viola, cello, harpsichord + sitar and tabla) and interspersed with scores for this type of formation by Händel, Purcell, JC Bach and Abel.
To see in video