Hidden In Plain Sight

The baroque era saw the violin – hitherto considered fit mainly for dance music – make the move to its current status as a concert regular thanks to the daring, fantasy and virtuosity first of the sonatas of Italian composers such as Castello, Fontana and Leonarda, then of the Austrians Schmelzer and Biber, and later in the concertos of Vivaldi and his French admirer Leclair. This vivaciously imaginative music here contrasts with the quiet reflectiveness of theorbo solos by Kapsberger and Piccinini.