Barokksolistene’s Alehouse Sessions to broadcast on BBC Four
BBC Four brings The Alehouse Sessions to screens this April with the bad boys of baroque – Bjarte Eike’s Barokksolistene – to capture the sound world of rebellious London under Oliver Cromwell’s draconian laws prohibiting any excess and abolishing the capital’s lively arts scene.
When 17th Century England went into lockdown and the Puritans closed playhouses and theatres, musicians and performers sought refuge in backrooms of taverns and alehouses to vent their anarchy. The Barokksolistene bring their trademark fleet-footed fiddling, devilish improvisation and intoxicating revelry to perform folk melodies, sea-shanties, bawdy ballads and cheeky ditties alongside ayres and dances by Purcell and Playford.
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