Corelli reviews

A decade after Corelli’s Op. 5 Violin Sonatas were introduced to England, writer and musician Roger North observed, ‘It is wonderful what a scratching of Corelli there is everywhere – nothing will relish but Corelli’. The set represented the defining moment of the early Baroque violin sonatas, and it wasn’t just violinists doing the relishing. Recorder transcriptions abounded, and Michala Petri addresses the ‘sonata da camera’ leg of Op. 5 in the company of a harpsichordist fast turning into a serial and lively collaborator: Mahan Esfahani.

The Avison Ensemble began their complete Corelli series in 2012 with the celebrated Concerti Grossi Op. 6, before turning their sights to the earlier, and more intimate, violin and trio sonatas. This two-disc set, comprising the Trio Sonatas Opp. 1 and 3, brings the cycle to a close. Both collections, dating from the 1680s, consist of so-called ‘church sonatas’ (sonate da chiesa) – the term something of a misnomer since they seem not to have been played in church, though their muted serenity would have been a fine complement to private devotion.

This is the first in a projected series of Corelli recordings by the Avison Ensemble marking the 300th anniversary of the composer’s death, and what better way to begin than with the iconic Op. 6 Concerti Grossi. Celebrated and emulated across Europe (not least by Handel, who pays homage in his own Op. 6 collection), the centrepiece of the set is the so-called Christmas Concerto – a musical tableau evoking the Nativity, complete with piping shepherds.

This disc is rewarding, above all because it places one of Tippett’s most approachable works, the Fantasia Concertante on a Theme of Corelli of 1953, firmly in the Baroque context within which it was conceived, as a tribute to the great Roman composer’s tercentenary. Hence Corelli’s vibrant opening Concerto Grosso in F, Op. 6/2 and the charmingly played Trio Sonata in B minor from the third 1680s set (Op. 3/4), whose Vivace – which plays a key role in the Tippett – was also reworked by Bach as the short organ fugue in B minor.

A relatively hidden light among the more philosophically-minded of younger Russian pianists, Melnikov shows unerring judgment in programming and execution. As I stated both on the Building a Library broadcast and in the summary on p56, I find his interpretation of the Op. 39 Etudes-Tableaux every bit as compelling as Rustem Hayroudinoff’s. Tellingly, both pianists expound eloquently in their booklet notes though Melnikov’s depth and breadth possibly go a little further than Rachmaninov the pianist would have warranted.