Duo Dorado: Spice of Italy

The Strad Issue: September 2026

Description: A duo shines fresh light on Restoration London

Musicians: Duo Dorado

Works: Music for violin and continuo by Nicola Matteis and son

Catalogue number: CHANDOS CHAN0831

Duo Dorado, consisting of violinist Hazel Brooks and harpsichordist/organist David Pollock, continues with its focus on works originating in Restoration London. This time round it highlights the Italian seasoning that Nicola Matteis and son brought to the capital’s musical environment in the form of expressive cantabile lines, progressive technical demands and expansive harmonic and contrapuntal language.

Its performances of selections from Matteis senior’s four books of Ayres both please and disappoint. The myriad dances are largely stylishly dispatched, particularly Book 4’s buoyant ‘Gavotta con divisioni’ and most of the gigas. Hazel Brooks negotiates the thorough workout that is the ‘Ostinatione’ (Book 2) with flying colours and executes characterful pieces such as Book 4’s ‘Ground after the Scotch Humour’ with appropriate spirit. However, her technique seems stretched in the multiple stopping of Book 2’s ‘Fuga’ and ‘Andamento malinconico’ and there are several moments, notably in Book 4’s ‘Aria Amorosa’ and ‘Passagio à solo’, when pre-planned interpretative detail inhibits spontaneity.

This straightjacketed feeling extends also to her reading of some preludes and the Adagio and Grave of Matteis junior’s A major Sonata. That said, she seems refreshingly liberated in Matteis senior’s unpublished ‘La folia’ variations, dispatching them with due aplomb. David Pollock provides discreet and sympathetic keyboard accompaniment throughout (although a more colourful continuo instrumentarium might have been preferable) and the recording is clear and well balanced.

Robin Stowell