Composer: Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli, Pietro Castrucci, Arcangelo Corelli, Pietro Antonio Locatelli, Antonio Maria Montanari, Giovanni Mossi, Gasparo Visconti
Performer: Musica Antiqua Roma, Riccardo Minasi
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Passacaille
Catalogue: PAS962
Release: 2010
Size: 248 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Corelli: Sonata Op.5 No. 9 in A Major
01. Preludio – Largo
02. Giga – Allegro
03. Adagio
04. Tempo di Gavotta – Allegro
Carbonelli: Sonata Op. 1 No. 2 in D minor
05. Adagio, Allegro
06. Allegro
07. Andante
08. Aria
Mossi: Sonata Op. 1 No. 5 in B minor
09. Adagio (2)
10. Allegro (3)
11. Adagio (3)
12. Allegro (4)
13. Allegro Moderato
Visconti: Sonata Op. 2 No. 5 in E minor
14. Grave
15. Allegro (5)
16. Grave (2)
17. Allegro (6)
Castrucci: Sonata Op. 1 No. 4 in G Minor
18. Largo
19. Allegro ma non troppo
20. Allegro (7)
Locatelli: Sonata Op. 8 No. 10 in A major
21. Cantabile
22. Allegro (8)
23. Vivace
Montanari: from Sonata in D Minor
24. Giga senza basso
The ensemble Musica Antiqua Roma specializes in the vast and partly forgotten repertoire of the music by Roman composers from the 17th and 18th centuries. Here they turn their attention to Corelli and his contemporaries, including Sonatas by Corelli himself Carbonelli, Mossi, Viconti, Castrucci, Locatelli and Montanari. Many of the works here are world premiere recordings.
Arcangelo Corelli’s legacy is immense, and even he knew it. The instrumental sonata in a few structurally coherent movements, as it exists today, is essentially his invention. The legacy under consideration on this Belgian release is narrower: after one sonata by Corelli himself, you hear works by his students and followers, many of whom played major roles in the musical life of England in the early 18th century. The most famous of these was Francesco Geminiani, who gets a lot of ink in the booklet (in English, French, German, and Italian) but is oddly not represented in the program. Instead there’s music by a host of lesser lights, much of it known only to scholars; the sonatas by Giovanni Carbonelli, Giovanni Mossi, and Pietro Castrucci, as well as an unaccompanied gigue by Antonio Montanari, are world-premiere recordings. The Violin Sonata, Op. 8/10, of Pietro Locatelli effectively integrates showpiece virtuosity with clean structural lines, but the rest of the music tends to pick up on one aspect or another of Corelli’s music — harmonic sequences, technical challenges, or the ornament-encrusted melody of Corelli’s slow movements — and imitate it. The peformances by the Musica Antiqua Roma historical-instrument ensemble are of the heavily accented, highly dramatic sort that has become common in Italy, with a three-person continuo (keyboard, cello,and triple harp) imparting plenty of rhythmic drive and rasp. The average buyer may be satisfied with music by Corelli and the other major figures of the Italian and British scenes (Veracini is one to try if you’re interested in exploring), but this will be of interest to serious fans of the High Baroque sonata.