62. Arcangelo Corelli - Twelve Concerti Grossi, op.6 (c.1700s)

Recording

Title: Concerti Grossi, op.6
Performers: The Bradenburg Consort
Director: Roy Goodman
Year: 1992
Length: 2 hours 20 minutes

Review

Ahh, the High Baroque starts here, and it really does. Corelli sounds more like the baroque of Vivaldi and Bach than any previous composer. Firstly the style of music, the concerto, really starts coming into its own at this stage and there are few collections of Baroque Concertos more impressive than Corelli's Concerti Grossi.

These are some beautiful pieces of music, almost cinematic in their emotion and feel, they are immediately striking to anyone who listens to them. Each of the twelve Concerti has their own identity which is quite clear, and the first 8 are quite different from the last 4 which include dances.

There is a kind of mixing of fast and slow movement here, but unlike later concertos with the Fast-slow-fast these concerti have more than three movements, having around 6 in most cases, but the high baroque sound is here, and it will be here to stay. Truly impressive music, beautiful and epic, superb.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

n 1685 Corelli was in Rome, where he led the festival performances of music for Queen Christina of Sweden and he was also a favorite of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, grand-nephew of another Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni who in 1689 became Pope Alexander VIII). From 1689 to 1690 he was in Modena; the Duke of Modena was generous to him. In 1708 he returned to Rome, living in the palace of Cardinal Ottoboni. His visit to Naples, at the invitation of the king, took place in the same year.

The style of execution introduced by Corelli and preserved by his pupils, such as Francesco Geminiani, Pietro Locatelli, and many others, was of vital importance for the development of violin playing. It has been said that the paths of all of the famous violinist-composers of 18th-century Italy lead to Arcangelo Corelli who was their "iconic point of reference." (Toussaint Loviko, in the program notes to Italian Violin Concertos, Veritas, 2003)

Concerto Grosso n.8 parts 1 and 2: