Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36394 in Digital Music Album
• Released on: 2005-08-25
• Running time: 7844 seconds

Customer Reviews

pure italian baroque
this is really fine music. corelli is the paragon of the "italian" style of baroque (at least until vivaldi caught bach's attention), and these sonatas are perhaps finer than the italianate sonatas by handel. there is marvelous poetry and variety in these pieces, brought forward by the spare instrumentation of violin, bass and harpsichord, and everything is wrapped in corelli's creamy, effortless, halcyon musical world.

my reservation is that manze at times takes these pieces with a raspy vigor that is better left for tartini. the "folias" variations in particular, while tremendous fun and inspiringly ornamented, omit that key (and historically correct) baroque attribute known as decorum. the equally virtuosic recordings by elizabeth wallfisch have the edge on that point.

by the way, if you enjoy this recording, i strongly urge you to get corelli's magnificent concerti grossi, a true pinnacle in the form and one of the great achievements of baroque music.

Captivating
I usually think of Corelli as nice "background music," pleasant, but without the emotional depth of Vivaldi, Bach or Handel. However, with this disc I find myself stopping and losing myself in the beautiful tones of Manze's baroque violin. The playing is superb and subtle, revealing these pieces as intimate and poetic. Harmonia Mundi's recording quality is excellent as well. Highly recommended. I can't wait to see what the venerable English Concert does under Manze's new leadership.

Music to delight the head--and heart
Confession: I have never loved these sonatas. Respected them, yes, of course; but with a polite detachment that their exclusively intellectual and technical achievements seemed to merit.

Well, this album changed all that. It's a masterly performance, effortlessly virtuosic, that shows forth the music in all its lapidary clarity. More than that, though: it is also luminously expressive, replete with moments of such unadorned and lyrical tenderness that the heart opens up, amazed.

For those who think they know this music no less than those who know they do not, Manze and Egarr's achievement is an exquisite revelation.