Corelli Sonatas For Viola da Gamba & Continuo Hi Res

In the eighteenth century, the sonata model established by the published works of Arcangelo Corelli conquered all of musical Europe. Throughout the century, transcriptions of his music were published for every instrument, and the viola da gamba was no exception. The most interesting collection is that held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris (MS Vm7 6308), which presents the twelve sonatas of Corelli’s op.5 in transcription for viola da gamba.

Who could have imagined that London would become the capital of Italian opera in the early eighteenth century? The 1720s witnessed a feverish demand for music that led many foreign virtuosos to move to the city. Concert-loving Londoners relished the last sonatas in the style of the old master Corelli, the first recorder and flute concertos, and the works of the youthful newcomer Handel… Let us admire this lively scene with the musicians of La Rêveuse, in their first recording for harmonia mundi!

It wasn’t until well into the 19th century that the first device to record sound waves would be invented. Thanks to these new technologies, today we can listen to our favorite concerts, sonatas, symphonies and operas from the comfort of our homes. What did our ancestors from the baroque period do to enjoy, for example, their favorite aria from an opera? This album provides us with our answer, providing us a glimpse into a small portion of music history: Musical arrangements.

“Smoky”, “vaporous”: the search for a sound for our bass quartet has been inspired by these words. How can we blend the violone (an imposing six-stringed bass viol, with a register close to that of the double bass), the viola da gamba and the cello into a common, homogeneous sound without losing the singularity of the grain of each string? How could we create a bond between each part, each instrument, to mgive the sonatas their fullest colours? This particular search for sonorities is a search for a means to blend the musical parts, thus creating a compact but intelligible texture.