James Hook

6 Trios op. 83 Vol. 2: Trios 4-6

James Hook was a child prodigy playing the spinet at the age of 4 and was already giving public concerts at the age of 6. He studied with Charles Burney, one of England's most important music scholars of the time. For almost half a century, Hook worked as organist and composer at Vauxhall Gardens, the most famous of all London's amusement parks. His compositions encompass almost all musical genres: instrumental solos, duets, trios, piano works with and without accompaniment, symphonic works, concertos, songs and polyphonic songs, dramatic works, even an oratorio. He had the greatest success with pieces of lighter, entertaining music, of which the Trios op. 83 give an excellent testimony.