A live recording of the complete set of Concerti grossi in the Handelian style by the foremost Dutch composer of the late Baroque.


Hellendaal was born in 1721 in Rotterdam as the son of a candle maker. Around 1740 he was in Padua for a while to be trained as a violinist and composer with Giuseppe Tartini, Europe's most famous violin teacher. Hellendaal then settled in Amsterdam, nevertheless chose to leave for London in 1751, presumably with the hope of greater fame and income. The London period lasted from 1751 to 1760. His Six Grand Concertos were issued in 1758 by the London music publisher John Walsh. Later, in Cambridge, Hellendaal was appointed organist of Pembroke Hall Chapel in 1762 and he would spend the rest of his life, a time span of almost forty years, in the city. He died in 1799, aged 78.

The Six Grand Concertos of 1758 are his only known works for orchestra. The characteristic of such a 'grand concerto' – a translation of the Italian concerto grosso – is the distinction between solo and tutti parts. In Hellendaal's Grand Concertos there are four soloists, two violinists, a viola player, and a cellist, who together form the concertino. Hellendaal certainly took the work of his three illustrious predecessors Corelli, Handel and Geminiani as a starting point, but he added a completely individual interpretation to it. The result is a set of six masterpieces.

Conductor/lutenist Mike Fentross has largely earned his credits as an early music specialist. He is working all over Europe as a conductor, soloist and basso continuo player and he is professor of lute and basso continuo at the Royal Conservatory The Hague. In 2006 he founded the baroque orchestra La Sfera Armoniosa.