The early music chamber group Le Consort is showing an ability to create fresh programming of Baroque works, and it is good to see that this release, offering some quite unfamiliar music, has been rewarded with commercial success. This Specchio Veneziano ("Venetian Mirror") reflects the virtuoso violin scene of La Serenissima, Venice, at the dawn of the 18th century in the works of two sharply contrasting composers. Antonio Vivaldi is not unfamiliar, of course, but the trio sonatas heard here from early in his career are ...
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The early music chamber group Le Consort is showing an ability to create fresh programming of Baroque works, and it is good to see that this release, offering some quite unfamiliar music, has been rewarded with commercial success. This Specchio Veneziano ("Venetian Mirror") reflects the virtuoso violin scene of La Serenissima, Venice, at the dawn of the 18th century in the works of two sharply contrasting composers. Antonio Vivaldi is not unfamiliar, of course, but the trio sonatas heard here from early in his career are not common works. They appeared in the 1700s decade, just a few years away from the Sinfonias of Giovanni Battista Reali heard here, but the two composers are worlds apart. Reali is hardly known at all, and this seems to be due to a lack of information about his life (in contrast to Vivaldi, whose life was very eventful). It certainly doesn't reflect on the quality of the music, which is often a revelation. Reali's pieces are called Sinfonias, but they have little to do with the genre...
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