The sensational success of Arcangelo Corelli's violin music at the beginning of the eighteenth century inspired a host of imitators, two of whom are unearthed here by Italian Baroque violinist Alessandra Talamo and the historical-instrument Ensemble Respighi. One, Nicola Francesco Haim, later went on to fame as one of Handel's librettists in London. The music of both composers is attractive but a bit undifferentiated; the sonatas presented here are all in four movements, nearly all of them studiously executing plain binary ...
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The sensational success of Arcangelo Corelli's violin music at the beginning of the eighteenth century inspired a host of imitators, two of whom are unearthed here by Italian Baroque violinist Alessandra Talamo and the historical-instrument Ensemble Respighi. One, Nicola Francesco Haim, later went on to fame as one of Handel's librettists in London. The music of both composers is attractive but a bit undifferentiated; the sonatas presented here are all in four movements, nearly all of them studiously executing plain binary forms. The two composers seem to have noted but not fully appreciated the power of the emerging distinction between church sonata and chamber sonata; Haim's sonatas bear Italian tempo indications but are called chamber sonatas and conclude with movements in the gigue or jig rhythm. Martino Bitti's sonatas are perhaps a bit denser and more sophisticated than Haim's, but there is no sharp distinction between the two composers' styles. The chief attraction of the disc is the playing of...
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