Pirates of the Baroque

If they were not so staggeringly virtuosic, consummately musical and outrageously exuberant, the maverick baroque group Red Priest would be accused of mere gimmickry and stuntmanship. They are not so much iconoclasts as downright anarchic, a characteristic that permeates Pirates of the Baroque, the first release on their own label, and a right swashbuckling collection of pieces it is, with filched offerings by Albinoni, Vivaldi, Couperin and others, some buccaneering cutting and pasting of bits of Bach, slide guitar, a hint of Piazzolla, and perhaps even a whiff of Rodrigo. Ridiculous but fun. Their theatricality and taste for visual presentation seeps into the playing.

Michael Tumelty.