Listen & tracks

1 of 16 tracks have a preview · 12 works · 73:50

Sonata Op. 5 No. 1Arcangelo Corelli 5 movements10:06
1. 1 i. Grave: Allegro 2:32
2. 2 ii. Allegro 2:21
3. 3 iii. Allegro :59
4. 4 iv. Adagio 2:42
5. 5 v. Allegro 1:32
6 Concerti Ecclesiastici Giovanni Paolo Cima Sonata per il violino 4:16
7 Sinfonie ad uno e doi violini Bartolomeo Montalbano iv. Sinfonia ‘Geloso’ 3:16
8 Sonate A 1, 2, 3 per il violino o cornetto Giovanni Battista Fontana Sonata terza 4:36
9 Toccate, Libro primo Girolamo Frescobaldi Cento partite sopra passacagli 11:33
10 Sonate Concertante in stile moderno, Libro secondo Dario Castello Sonata prima a soprano solo 4:48
11 Sonate over Canzoni da farsi à violino solo Marco Uccellini Sonata Op. 5 No. 8 4:14
12 Sonata prima Giovanni Battista Fontana 3:43
13 Sonata seconda Dario Castello 5:23
14 Sonata quarta Giovanni Battista Fontana 4:38
15 Sonate, symphonie … e ritornelli Biagio Marini Sonata per il violino per sonar con due corde 6:50
16 Sonata Op. 5 No. 12 Arcangelo Corelli ‘Follia’ 10:27

During the 17th century instrumental music was moving away from its supporting role in church and vocal music and establishing its independence as a genre. That shift coincided with a rise in instrumentalists’ skills, many of whom were also composers. Their works on this disc let us admire both musical imagination and performing craft.

The recording marks 21 years of Capella Corelli, one of Australia’s foremost Baroque chamber ensembles. The violin works of Arcangelo Corelli and his Italian predecessors were the group’s first inspiration. For its first decade it was based in Canberra. With harpsichordist and philosopher Paul Thom it built a reputation on rich repertoire and newly researched performance practice of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Tours followed across Australia and New Zealand, often with Musica Viva Australia, alongside workshops and teaching. From 1988, with harpsichordist and scholar John O’Donnell, Capella Corelli toured more often in Europe, especially Austria, where violinist Cynthia O’Brien was then based. La Prima Stravaganza was recorded just before the 1998 European tour in late July.

Reviews

The performances are lively and fresh, the sound quality excellent, and the end result very attractive.

— Bradley Lonard, 24 Hours (ABC)

... one of my favourite early music groups ... Excellent

— The New Englander

Artists

Capella Corelli

ensemble

Capella Corelli, one of Australia's foremost baroque chamber ensembles, was formed 21 years ago. The violin works of the great Italian virtuoso Arcangelo Corelli and of his Italian predecessors were the initial inspiration for the group.

Arcangelo Corelli

composer

Arcangelo Corelli (1653–1713) was an Italian Baroque violinist and composer. His sonatas and concerti grossi helped establish the violin’s pre-eminence and fixed models of the sonata and concerto that spread across Europe.

Girolamo Frescobaldi

composer

Girolamo Frescobaldi's keyboard music moves between flamboyant improvisatory toccatas and strict counterpoint, with sudden shifts of tempo and mood that still challenge performers. His canzonas, partitas and sacred organ works shaped Baroque keyboard writing for generations.

Dario Castello

composer

Dario Castello’s Sonate concertate in stil moderno mark the shift from canzona to sonata: strict polyphony cuts against dramatic recitative over continuo, with stile concitato repeated notes and parts specified for violin, cornett, sackbut and dulcian.

Giovanni Paolo Cima

composer

Giovanni Paolo Cima’s early seventeenth-century sonatas are among the first independent instrumental works of the Italian Baroque: single-movement, through-composed pieces for violin, cornett and continuo that join thematic integration with room for virtuoso display.

Giovanni Battista Fontana

composer

Biagio Marini

composer

Bartolomeo Montalbano

composer

Marco Uccellini

composer

Marco Uccellini wrote idiomatic Baroque sonatas and arias for solo violin and continuo: short contrasting sections that flow into one another, with virtuosic runs, leaps and writing that pushes the instrument into high positions.

Digital booklet

Digital booklet Notes, texts and credits — read online or download the PDF Download the PDF

Buy now

$25.00 AUD

Compact disc

Buywell Music Australian Music Centre

Stream now

Apple Music

Also available to download from the iTunes Store.

Performers

Capella Corelli · ensemble
Ruth Wilkinson · viola da gamba, recorder
John O'Donnell · harpsichord
Cynthia O'Brien · violin

Technical credits

Recording Engineer Martin Wright
Vaughan McAlley
Venue Move Records Studio
Thanks to Stephen Freeman
Credit Simon Wright

Details

List price: $25.00 AUD
Total playing time: 73 minutes 50 seconds
Release date: 1998
Categories: Classical, Early music
Genres: Baroque, Early Music
Catalogue: MD 3208
EAN: 9314574320824

More to explore

Duos

An extraordinary acoustic frames extraordinary music: Ruth Wilkinson (recorders and bass viola da gamba) and Cynthia O’Brien (baroque violin), the duo known as Capella Corelli, in late Baroque two-part repertoire.

Capella Corelli Plays Handel and Telemann

Capella Corelli has long been one of Australia’s foremost baroque chamber ensembles. Here they present sonatas by Handel and Telemann for baroque violin, recorder, viola da gamba and harpsichord.

Music from 4 to 40 Parts

Angeli Vocal Ensemble, pianist Michael Kieran Harvey, chamber choir Ensemble Gombert and the Four Seasons String Quartet perform Melbourne composer Vaughan McAlley’s music. The programme explores writing from four parts up to forty, in his distinctive approach to counterpoint.