Sonate da Chiesa op. 1  (67:11)
	01	Sonata 1 in Fa major - Grave						01:23
	02	Sonata 1 in Fa major - Allegro						01:22
	03	Sonata 1 in Fa major - Adagio						01:39
	04	Sonata 1 in Fa major - Allegro						01:33
	05	Sonata 2 in Mi minor - Grave						01:34
	06	Sonata 2 in Mi minor - Vivace						00:54
	07	Sonata 2 in Mi minor - Adagio						01:15
	08	Sonata 2 in Mi minor - Allegro						01:03
	09	Sonata 3 in La major - Grave						01:35
	10	Sonata 3 in La major - Allegro						01:45
	11	Sonata 3 in La major - Adagio						01:39
	12	Sonata 3 in La major - Allegro						01:30
	13	Sonata 4 in La minor - Vivace (attacca)						00:47
	14	Sonata 4 in La minor - Adagio						01:29
	15	Sonata 4 in La minor - Allegro						01:06
	16	Sonata 4 in La minor - Presto						01:03
	17	Sonata 5 in Si bemol major - Grave						01:58
	18	Sonata 5 in Si bemol major - Allegro						01:32
	19	Sonata 5 in Si bemol major - Adagio - Allegro						01:26
	20	Sonata 5 in Si bemol major - Allegro						01:09
	21	Sonata 6 in Si minor - Grave						00:59
	22	Sonata 6 in Si minor - Largo						02:00
	23	Sonata 6 in Si minor - Adagio						01:46
	24	Sonata 6 in Si minor - Allegro						01:20
	25	Sonata 7 in Do major - Allegro						01:28
	26	Sonata 7 in Do major - Grave						01:23
	27	Sonata 7 in Do major - Allegro						01:28
	28	Sonata 8 in Do minor - Grave						01:19
	29	Sonata 8 in Do minor - Allegro						01:35
	30	Sonata 8 in Do minor - Largo						02:22
	31	Sonata 8 in Do minor - Vivace						01:06
	32	Sonata 9 in Sol major - Allegro						01:32
	33	Sonata 9 in Sol major - Adagio - Allegro						01:26
	34	Sonata 9 in Sol major - Adagio						01:23
	35	Sonata 9 in Sol major - Allegro - Adagio						01:19
	36	Sonata 10 in Sol minor - Grave						01:08
	37	Sonata 10 in Sol minor - Allegro (attacca)						00:37
	38	Sonata 10 in Sol minor - Allegro						00:51
	39	Sonata 10 in Sol minor - Adagio						01:22
	40	Sonata 10 in Sol minor - Allegro						01:15
	41	Sonata 11 in Re minor - Grave						01:29
	42	Sonata 11 in Re minor - Allegro						01:14
	43	Sonata 11 in Re minor - Adagio						01:34
	44	Sonata 11 in Re minor - Allegro						01:22
	45	Sonata 12 in Re major - Grave						01:40
	46	Sonata 12 in Re major - Largo e puntato						01:30
	47	Sonata 12 in Re major - Grave						01:03
	48	Sonata 12 in Re major - Allegro						01:58
Sonate da Chiesa op. 3  (73:56)
	01	Sonata 1 in Fa major - Grave						01:58
	02	Sonata 1 in Fa major - Allegro						01:18
	03	Sonata 1 in Fa major - Vivace						02:06
	04	Sonata 1 in Fa major - Allegro						01:08
	05	Sonata 2 in Re major - Grave						02:06
	06	Sonata 2 in Re major - Allegro						00:57
	07	Sonata 2 in Re major - Adagio						02:07
	08	Sonata 2 in Re major - Allegro						02:05
	09	Sonata 3 in Si bemol major - Grave						01:39
	10	Sonata 3 in Si bemol major - Vivace						00:31
	11	Sonata 3 in Si bemol major - Largo						02:58
	12	Sonata 3 in Si bemol major - Allegro						01:37
	13	Sonata 4 in Si minor - Largo						02:24
	14	Sonata 4 in Si minor - Vivace						01:14
	15	Sonata 4 in Si minor - Adagio						02:18
	16	Sonata 4 in Si minor - Presto						01:07
	17	Sonata 5 in Re minor - Grave						02:13
	18	Sonata 5 in Re minor - Allegro						01:25
	19	Sonata 5 in Re minor - Largo						01:39
	20	Sonata 5 in Re minor - Allegro						01:10
	21	Sonata 6 in Sol major - Vivace						01:39
	22	Sonata 6 in Sol major - Grave						01:30
	23	Sonata 6 in Sol major - Allegro						01:11
	24	Sonata 6 in Sol major - Allegro						00:58
	25	Sonata 7 in Mi minor - Grave						01:29
	26	Sonata 7 in Mi minor - Allegro						00:50
	27	Sonata 7 in Mi minor - Adagio						01:50
	28	Sonata 7 in Mi minor - Allegro						01:24
	29	Sonata 8 in Do major - Largo						02:06
	30	Sonata 8 in Do major - Allegro						01:14
	31	Sonata 8 in Do major - Largo						01:47
	32	Sonata 8 in Do major - Allegro						01:26
	33	Sonata 9 in Fa minor - Grave						01:37
	34	Sonata 9 in Fa minor - Vivace						00:53
	35	Sonata 9 in Fa minor - Largo						01:25
	36	Sonata 9 in Fa minor - Allegro						01:46
	37	Sonata 10 in La minor - Vivace						00:39
	38	Sonata 10 in La minor - Allegro						01:05
	39	Sonata 10 in La minor - Adagio						00:33
	40	Sonata 10 in La minor - Allegro						01:46
	41	Sonata 11 in Sol minor - Grave						01:19
	42	Sonata 11 in Sol minor - Presto						01:01
	43	Sonata 11 in Sol minor - Adagio						01:44
	44	Sonata 11 in Sol minor - Allegro						01:11
	45	Sonata 12 in La minor - Grave						02:31
	46	Sonata 12 in La minor - Vivace						00:56
	47	Sonata 12 in La minor - Allegro						01:05
	48	Sonata 12 in La minor - Allegro						01:39
	49	Sonata 12 in La minor - Allegro						01:22

The Baroque model.
Arcangelo Corelli was the most famous Italian composer of the late 17th century. He owed this preeminence to his skill in harnessing the musical tendencies of his time, as is demonstrated by his celebrated Sonatas, which became the models for the chamber sonata (sonata da camera) and church sonata (sonata da chiesa). Yet the composer himself was constantly reacting against these archetypes, and it is this perpetual reflection on his own art that gives his works their extraordinary richness.


Arcangelo Corelli (1653 - 1713)
Sonate da Chiesa op. 1 & 3
Sonate in trio per due violini e basso continuo (Roma 1681, 1689)

London Baroque
Violini: Ingrid Seifert, Richard Gwilt
Violoncello: Charles Medlam
Organo: Nocholas Parle, Lars Ulrik Mortensen
Archiliuto: Nigel North

Harmonia Mundi, 1991


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






Trio sonatas
Composer Arcangelo Corelli

Description
The emergence of the full-fledged trio sonata at the hands of Arcangelo Corelli represents a defining moment in the development of Baroque music. Since the establishment of an idiomatic style of writing for the violin earlier in the seventeenth century, composers had increasingly sought to unify the disparate sectional nature of their compositions for the instrument. Virtuoso solo works gave way to pieces for two violins and continuo, in which more extended movements and imitative interplay between the three parts provided a greater sense of cohesion. Outstanding in this context are the sonatas of the Venetian Giovanni Legrenzi (1626 - 1690). But it was the enormously successful and influential four sets of trio sonatas by Corelli that eventually established the genre as the dominant chamber music form of the Baroque.
The first, published in 1681 as Op. 1, immediately established Corelli, already famous in Rome as the most notable violin virtuoso of his day, as one of the foremost living instrumental composers. It consists of 12 sonatas in four movements, termed by their composer sonate da chiesa or church sonatas. They were known as such to emphasize their serious nature and to distinguish them from the type of sonata that included dance movements, such as those of the composer's Op. 2 (1685); this latter type was thus designated sonata da camera (chamber sonatas). Nearly all, whether church or chamber sonata, have a slow-fast-slow-fast scheme; deviations such as Op. 1, No. 4 in A minor, which opens with an Allegro, were rare at this time. These two publications were succeeded by two further sets of 12 sonatas, the sonate da chiesa of Op. 3, published in 1689, and a further group of a dozen sonate da camera, which appeared in 1694. Corelli's sonatas are particularly notable for the new breadth he brought to slow movements, often created by the composer's beautiful use of suspensions to create sustained, slow-moving passages harmonically enlivened by gentle dissonance. Quicker movements feature cleverly crafted imitation between the two violins, and, at times, the bass line. The relatively undemanding nature of the writing ensured a ready market for Corelli's sonatas among the rapidly growing numbers of amateur players. Within Corelli's lifetime they achieved the staggering total of no less than 78 reprints, and they continued to be reprinted throughout the eighteenth century. More important, they laid the framework for many dozens of works composed in imitation of these, though later composers such as Handel tended to blur the distinction between church and chamber sonata. -- Brian Robins