Concerti Grossi, Op. 6 (disk 1)  (66:17)
	01	No. 1 in D - Largo - Allegro - Largo - Allegro						05:17
	02	No. 1 in D - Largo						03:09
	03	No. 1 in D - Allegro						01:40
	04	No. 1 in D - Allegro						02:16
	05	No. 2 in F - Vivace - Allegro - Adagio - Vivace - Allegro - Largo andante						04:14
	06	No. 2 in F - Allegro						01:51
	07	No. 2 in F - Grave - Andante largo - Allegro						04:25
	08	No. 3 in C minor - Largo - Allegro						04:32
	09	No. 3 in C minor - Grave - Vivace						03:58
	10	No. 3 in C minor - Allegro						02:28
	11	No. 4 in D - Adagio - Allegro						03:42
	12	No. 4 in D - Adagio - Vivace						03:17
	13	No. 4 in D - Allegro - Allegro						03:24
	14	No. 5 in B flat - Adagio - Allegro						03:11
	15	No. 5 in B flat - Adagio						01:25
	16	No. 5 in B flat - Allegro						02:11
	17	No. 5 in B flat - Largo - Allegro						03:52
	18	No. 6 in F - Adagio						01:57
	19	No. 6 in F - Allegro						01:55
	20	No. 6 in F - Largo						03:38
	21	No. 6 in F - Vivace						02:01
	22	No. 6 in F - Allegro						01:54
Concerti Grossi, Op. 6 (disk 2)  (65:18)
	01	No. 7 in D - Vivace - Allegro - Adagio						02:25
	02	No. 7 in D - Allegro						01:48
	03	No. 7 in D - Andante largo						02:37
	04	No. 7 in D - Allegro						01:08
	05	No. 7 in D - Vivace						01:21
	06	No. 8 in Gm - Vivace - Grave						01:44
	07	No. 8 in Gm - Allegro						02:13
	08	No. 8 in Gm - Adagio - Allegro - Adagio						02:55
	09	No. 8 in Gm - Vivace						01:16
	10	No. 8 in Gm - Allegro						02:37
	11	No. 8 in Gm - Pastorale: Largo						03:54
	12	No. 9 in F - Preludio: Largo						01:21
	13	No. 9 in F - Allemande: Allegro						02:34
	14	No. 9 in F - Corrente: Vivace						01:34
	15	No. 9 in F - Gavotta: Allegro						00:58
	16	No. 9 in F - Adagio - Minuetto: Vivace						02:37
	17	No. 10 in C - Preludio: Andante largo						02:06
	18	No. 10 in C - Allemanda: Allegro						02:31
	19	No. 10 in C - Adagio						01:01
	20	No. 10 in C - Corrente: Vivace						02:21
	21	No. 10 in C - Allegro						02:22
	22	No. 10 in C - Minuetto: Vivace						01:59
	23	No. 11 in B flat - Preludio: Andante largo						02:06
	24	No. 11 in B flat - Allemanda: Allegro						02:21
	25	No. 11 in B flat - Adagio - Andante Largo						02:15
	26	No. 11 in B flat - Sarabanda: Largo						01:09
	27	No. 11 in B flat - Giga: Vivace						01:22
	28	No. 12 in F - Preludio: Adagio						02:06
	29	No. 12 in F - Allegro						02:29
	30	No. 12 in F - Adagio						02:03
	31	No. 12 in F - Sarabande: Largo						01:03
	32	No. 12 in F - Giga: Allegro						03:02

Concerti Grossi (12), Op. 6
Composer Arcangelo Corelli
Genre Concerto Grosso

Description
Of all history's elite composers (and certainly of elite Baroque composers), Arcangelo Corelli may well have the least music to his name. Six publications' worth of solo and trio sonatas and concerti grossi, plus a handful of unpublished and possibly spurious works, are all he bequeathed to posterity; but what a magnificent and vastly influential lot that music is. By the time Corelli's 12 Concerti grossi, Op. 6 were published, posthumously, in Amsterdam in 1714 (by Estienne Roger -- famous for his sometimes underhanded Handel publications), Corelli was no longer at the forefront of Italian musical development -- Vivaldi and company by then had that honor. But the music nevertheless drove a great deal of Europe into a renewed frenzy for the recently deceased Corelli's music, and the extent to which composers from country to country tried to duplicate the clean, clear style of the Op. 6 works ("pure," "rich," and "grateful" are words the eighteenth-century music historian Dr. Charles Burney used to describe these concerti grossi) cannot really be measured.
Corelli didn't compose Op. 6 from scratch just before its publication -- much or even all of the music in the volume goes back many years, some as far as the 1680s or possibly even further. Corelli revised all of this old music in the years leading up to 1714, however, to bring it up to his own current standards and to make it more compatible with current taste. The first eight Op. 6 concerti grossi are cast in four-movement sonata da chiesa form, sometimes modified from what is now considered to be the sonata da chiesa norm, and in the case of No. 8 expanded to five movements, while the last four are examples of the more dance-oriented sonata da camera. Corelli, perhaps significantly, never actually used the term da chiesa, though he did specifically describe the last four works of Op. 6 as per camera. In Op. 6, as in all concerti grossi of the day, a small concertante group is set against a larger tutti ensemble. Interestingly enough, Corelli indicated that the tutti ensemble of Op. 6 can be eliminated if need be and the three soli -- two violins and a cello -- can play the music as though a trio sonata; but perhaps one shouldn't heed Corelli's words too much -- such a performance results in the loss of some important music, and one imagines that the need would have to have been great for Corelli himself to have allowed such a performance. Op. 6, No. 8 in G minor is the famous five-movement Christmas Concerto. -- Blair Johnston




Arcangelo Corelli
Country Italy
Birth Feb 17, 1653 in Fusignano, Italy
Death Jan 8, 1713 in Rome, Italy
Period Baroque

Biography
Arcangelo Corelli holds a particularly prominent place in music history for several reasons. He was a brilliant violinist and influenced the development of violin playing for generations to come. He left behind the legacy of a sound playing technique born out of a cantabile style, and was the violin teacher to an entire generation of violinist-composers. He steered violin playing away from a frivolous and indulgent display of virtuosity. He wrote and performed pieces of contrapuntal interest and melodic depth, substantially contributing to the repertoire of the solo violin as well as to that of the trio sonata and concerto grosso. He stabilized the forms of these genres and composed works without any trace of modality. He was the first composer to compose completely diatonically, being very aware of the significance of harmonic progressions in his counterpoint and melodies.
When he was alive, he was surrounded by a great deal of mystique, and biographers after his death had to deal with a certain amount of fictions about him. He was a reserved man, and possessed certain peculiarities which set him apart from others. He walked everywhere, always wore black, and remained celibate his entire life, never even attempting to marry. He was gentle and simple, with a passion and commitment to his music. He loved painting also, and had a collection of fine masterpieces at his death. He resided for the majority of his career in apartments in the palace of the influential Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome. Much beloved by the Cardinal, he was considered a close friend rather than an employee and was given a great many opportunities by him.

In 1653, right before Arcangelo's birth, his father passed away and left his mother, Santa Raffina, a widow. She raised her five children alone on her husband's estate. The Corelli family from which Arcangelo came was prominent and influential. Supposedly the descendants of Coriolanus and related to the Corelli of Rome, they have a bloody and infamous history, as well as a history of great piety. The family was known for its poets, leaders, priests, lawyers, mathematicians, and doctors. Arcangelo was the first musician among them, and took up the study of the violin. When discussing Corelli's compositions, it is important to be aware of the fact that he was a performer on the violin first; he composed with a sense of the richness of the violin's resources and its sonorous possibilities. -- Rita Laurance



Work(s) Overview
Composer Arcangelo Corelli

Description
Violinist and composer Arcangelo Corelli (1653 - 1713) exerted an influence on musicians of his time and those following that was even greater than his sizeable body of musical scores. That he was celebrated as both performer and composer was evident from his own time onward. Not until the 1999 publication of Peter Alsop's Arcangelo Corelli: New Orpheus of Our Times, however, were many myths fully cleared up regarding both the composer's life and the role of his compositions in the establishment of musical form. As Alsop describes Corelli, he was a composer centered in the Roman as well as the Bolognese tradition.
English musical historians Charles Burney and John Hawkins are, in large measure, responsible for many inaccuracies, having gleaned information from secondary sources later known to be questionable. Corelli's Op. 1, for example, appeared in 1681, two years earlier than previously believed. Corelli arrived in Rome around 1675, where, owing to the patronage through which artists and composers made their living, a great number of compositions were not published. Thus, numerous works have been attributed to Corelli which are almost assuredly not his. Still, it is quite likely that the composer's works extend beyond those of Op. 1 through Op. 6 (each holding a dozen works).

In Rome, Corelli composed solo sonatas for himself as a violinist, works not published and therefore not available to aid in judging his level of virtuosity. Nonetheless, Corelli was regarded as unsurpassed by fellow artists and his compositions achieved such success they were deemed immortal, beginning with his Op. 1. He was not merely a pedant who established order in the sonata form, but a brilliant composer of enormous invention, both harmonically and melodically fresh -- even daring.

Corelli's three collections of free sonatas divide themselves into two areas, by function. Op. 1 and Op. 3 are sonate da chiesa (of the church), while those of Op. 2 and Op. 4 are sonate da camera (of the chamber). In Op. 1 and Op. 3, an organ continuo is required, while in Op. 2 and Op. 4, no continuo is indicated.

The one set of solo sonatas of Corelli's to have been published (in 1700), his Sonate a violino e violone o cembalo, was successful beyond precedent, undergoing more than 50 reprints in the century following. As these works were in fact duo works for violin and violone and did not require continuo, they provide no truly meaningful guide to the composer's capability as a player.

Op. 6 consists of concerti grossi, a term which in Corelli's time did not always imply a combination of solo and concerted sections. While some movements may be seen as expansions of his sonatas, others employ more than three lines and clearly require this addition for realization of the composer's invention.

While Corelli's played a seminal role in the effort to formulate the concerto form, it is the exceptional quality of his music that assures his place in musical history. -- Erik Eriksson