Giovanni Legrenzi is one of the Baroque period’s most important figures, a composer who enjoyed success in opera, oratorio, cantata and chamber music. Having spent the last twenty years of his life in Venice, where he was appointed maestro di cappella of St Mark’s Basilica in 1685, Legrenzi is best remembered today for his cultivation of chamber music.

This release is dedicated to the final three of Legrenzi’s five large instrumental collections, with the first of the featured trio (Op.8) marking the beginning of a more ambitious and expansive style. Highlights include the Sonata La Cremona, notable for its use of four rather than two violins, and La Basadonna, a work whose antiphonal treatment of two trio-sonata ensembles was ahead of its time. The CD also features Legrenzi’s most musically complex collection, published as Op.10. Two extracts from Op.16 complete the line-up: based on the stately balletto and lively corrente dances, No.3 and No.9 are unusual for their respective attacca and chaconne-based structures.

With their innovative tonal sense, melodically and rhythmically vigorous themes, as well as intricate yet highly expressive counterpoint, these works reveal Legrenzi as an exuberant innovator. Through them we hear a crucial mid-point in the history of Venetian instrumental music.

Authentically Venetian performances of Venetian music.