The Grand Tour

An extraordinary journey

This is the story of Sir John Clerk of Penicuik (1676–1755). He was 2nd Baronet, a Scottish politician, lawyer and judge. He was Vice-President of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, the pre-eminent learned society of the Scottish Enlightenment. Sir John was also a gifted composer, his true passion was music.

In October of 1694, Sir John left Penicuik for a journey that would take him away from Scotland for four years. The first part of his journey took him to Leiden where he studied law, the violin and harpsichord. After one year of hard work he was able to play the harpsichord in concerts and "he was as good as any Gentleman in Holland". During his stay in Leiden he met the Polish composer Jakob Kremberg and it is thought that he had composition lessons from him. It was here that he also met Herman Boerhaave, the renowned Dutch physician, who would remain a good friend and who wrote the libretti for at least two of his cantatas. 
 
In May 1697 he left Holland and set off for Rome. He travelled through Germany and spent the summer in Vienna where he was introduced to the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. On discovering Clerk’s great love of music, Leopold I invited him to his private opera on more than one occasion. Clerk really enjoyed his time there and wrote very fondly about it in his Memoirs.  He then set off for Venice and later for Rome where he arrived in September 1697. In Rome, Clerk studied the harpsichord with Bernardo Pasquini and violin and composition with Arcangelo Corelli.

For our first recording we have created a programme based around Sir John Clerk’s “Grand Tour”. Including music by all the aforementioned composers and of course Sir John Clerk himself. It is a programme for Soprano, Trumpet, Strings and Bass Continuo. 

CROWDFUNDER