Pepusch: Recorder Sonata No. 1 in C Major

0:00 I. Adagio 1:50 II. Allegro 3:30 III. Adagio 5:09 IV. Allegro Johann Christoph Pepusch (1667-1752) was a German composer who, like Handel, worked much of his life in England. He is best known for arranging the music and writing the overture to John Gay’s “The Beggar’s Opera” but he was also a fairly prolific composer of operas and instrumental music. Here we have the first of his dozen recorder sonatas, in C Major, in the typical slow-fast-slow-fast format of the day. The fourth movement is very much like the gigue that ends most baroque dance suites. As to the painting, it is called "The Three Sons" even though the middle one looks like he&going to Cinderella&ball. Children were often dressed in a very androgynous way at the time, especially with all the frills and trim on men&clothing back then. I also wonder if that&a very small oldest child or a dog the size of a Shetland pony.