Bridget Cunningham – Saxon Harpsichord by Ferdinand Weber, London 1746

This recital includes the lyrical and complex music of the Anglo-Irish composer, Thomas Roseingrave, one of the most interesting and original composers of keyboard music in eighteenth-century Britain as well as his contemporary, George Frideric Handel. Although evidence has been lost, an account describes Roseingrave buying a Ferdinand Weber harpsichord whilst working in Dublin in the mid-18th century.

Bridget Cunningham is a prizewinning harpsichordist, conductor and musicologist and alumni of the Royal College of Music, London where she gained a Fellowship with a Worshipful Company of Musicians Award and the Tankard Harpsichord Intercollegiate Competition First Prize winner, Lofthouse Harpsichord and Clavichord Prizes, Ruth Dyson Harpsichord and Harpsichord Continuo Prizes. She is currently undertaking her doctoral studies with a stipend through Oxford, Open and Cambridge Universities.

Bridget has recently released her third solo harpsichord album with Signum Classics of the music of Thomas Roseingrave which features its own distinct quality of freshness, vitality and tunefulness. Cunningham who shares with him an Anglo-Irish heritage, has an ability to breathe life, air and space into this complex but exquisitely beautiful music. She has also recorded Handel’s Eight Great Harpsichord Suites which received reviews:

“Bridget Cunningham is just such a player… Her feeling for dance rhythms is infectious and her ability to entertain unassailable” ★★★★★ 5 stars BBC Music Magazine, 2022.

Her solo harpsichord performances include playing at the London Handel Festival, Maison Hine Cognac, Foundling Museum, Handel Hendrix Museum, Château de Hautefort, Oxford and Cambridge Club, the Victoria International Arts Festival and recitals for the Prime Minister of Malta and for the King and members of the Royal Family at Buckingham Palace.

Bridget enjoys playing on original, historic keyboard instruments, collaborating with baroque dance groups and art historians giving lecture recitals at art galleries and opened the Watteau drawings exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London and the Handel Institute Conference in 2021. Broadcasts include BBC 2 Messiah, BBC 4 Vivaldi’s Women, the virginal music for BBC Elizabeth the Virgin Queen, the harpsichord music for ITV How London was Built, BBC Radio 3 In Tune and BBC Radio 4 Front Row.

As Artistic Director of London Early Opera, she has conducted, researched and edited scores of hundreds of relatively unknown baroque arias and a series of Handel recordings with Signum Classics. These albums have been released worldwide and include Handel in Italy, Caio Fabbricio, Handel at Vauxhall and Handel’s Queens, shortlisted for a Gramophone Award nomination 2020.

“Handel has never sounded better” ★★★★★ 5 Stars BBC Music Magazine, 2020.