Carbonelli • Vivaldi

Carbonelli: Sonata da Camera

Nos 7-12; Vivaldi: Concerto in B flat, RV366 (Il Carbonelli)

Bojan Čičić (violin); Illyria Consort Delphian DCD 34214 78:18 mins Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli was one of many 18th-century Italian musicians who headed for Britain to make profit from his music. A talented violinist whose name was appended to one of Vivaldi’s concertos, Carbonelli also played in Handel’s orchestra from time to time. On the strength of the six sonatas on this disc – which make up the balance of the other six in the collection, earlier warmly reviewed in these pages – Carbonelli was a gifted composer. Sadly, these represent his only surviving music.

Bojan Čičić and his Illyria Consort play these Sonate da Camera with expressive warmth and sensibility. The continuo cadre varies its colours and textures according to taste and perceived musical requirements, with rewarding results. Try the especially attractive Sonata No. 11 in A major, with an exciting passage of violin bariolage and robust Baroque guitar interjections. Corelli is the clear formal template, yet the music is often pleasingly individual and on occasion suggestive of Carbonelli’s English domicile.

Čičić also gives a lively account of Vivaldi’s Concerto in B flat, Il Carbonelli. It is an attractive piece with an infectiously energetic closing movement. The composer clearly thought well of it since, in another manuscript, he inscribed it to his prodigiously gifted pupil at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, Anna Maria. Nicholas Anderson

PERFORMANCE ★★★★

RECORDING ★★★★