Rachel Podger (violin)
Channel Classics · CCSSA44422 · 67 minutes
There’s something almost defiant about a program built entirely on unaccompanied violin, and Podger leans into that solitude rather than shying away from it — the title itself means “all alone,” and she makes that isolation sound less like a limitation than a kind of freedom. What strikes you across these 67 minutes is how much color she pulls from a single line, shifting from raw grit to silvery lightness sometimes within the same phrase. It’s no surprise this swept up both the Recording of the Year and Instrumental prizes at the BBC Music Magazine Awards — this is playing that rewards close, repeated listening rather than background enjoyment.
Awards:
- Presto Editor’s Choice — October 2022
- Presto Recordings of the Year — Finalist 2022
- BBC Music Magazine Awards — 2023 — Recording of the Year
- BBC Music Magazine Awards — 2023 — Winner – Instrumental
“the most striking aspects of Podger’s playing throughout this recital (compared to most 20th-century ‘golden-agers’), is her enhanced range of tone and articulation, her vastly more flexible…”
— BBC Music Magazine
The English Concert, Trevor Pinnock
DG Archiv · 4749072 · 2 hours 8 minutes
Corelli’s Op. 6 concertos are the blueprint for basically everything that follows in Baroque orchestral music, and Pinnock’s English Concert plays them with a lightness that never tips into daintiness — there’s real muscle in those string textures when the music calls for it. What gets me every time is how naturally the concertino and ripieno groups converse, like the whole ensemble is breathing together rather than just trading phrases. Two hours of this is honestly not enough.
Awards:
- Building a Library — November 2000 — Runner-Up
- Gramophone Awards — 1989 — Winner – Early Music – Baroque
Le Consort: Theotime Langlois de Swarte, Sophie de Bardonneche, Louise Pierrard, Hanna Salzenstein, Justin Taylor
Alpha · ALPHA542 · 61 minutes
Corelli’s trio sonatas get treated as historical furniture so often that it’s a genuine jolt to hear them played with this much bite and curiosity. Le Consort digs into the Opus 1 set like it’s freshly written music rather than a textbook example of Baroque form, and pairing it with Dandrieu is a smart move — you hear where the language comes from and where it’s headed all at once. Théotime Langlois de Swarte’s violin has that rare quality of sounding both effortless and urgent, which is probably why the whole thing walked away with Diapason’s top prize that year.
Awards:
- Diapason d’Or — September 2019 — Nouveauté
- Diapason d’Or de l’Année — 2019 — Winner – Baroque instrumental
Andrew Manze (violin), Richard Egarr (harpsichord)
Harmonia Mundi · HMU907298/99 · 2 hours 10 minutes
Corelli’s Op. 5 sonatas can sound almost too tidy in the wrong hands, like museum pieces polished until nothing breathes, but Manze treats the ornamentation as an invitation rather than an obligation, spinning out embellishments that feel invented on the spot even when they’re not. Egarr matches him note for note in wit and spontaneity, so the whole two hours plays like a conversation between two people who genuinely enjoy each other’s company. It’s the kind of Corelli that makes you understand why this music mattered so much to eighteenth-century listeners in the first place.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — April 2003 — Disc of the Month
- Penguin Guide — Rosette
- Building a Library — May 2018 — Also recommended
“Corelli’s Sonatas have never felt more alive and less perfectly preserved than they do here, and if you care at all for the baroque repertoire or fine fiddle playing, you owe it to yourself…”
— bbc.co.uk
Amandine Beyer (violin)
Gli Incogniti
Zigzag · ZZT327 · 2 hours 24 minutes
Corelli’s Op. 6 concertos can sound like polite wallpaper in the wrong hands, all those stately dotted rhythms rolling by without much urgency. Amandine Beyer and Gli Incogniti refuse to let that happen here, digging into the interplay between the concertino and ripieno with a kind of conversational electricity, so the phrasing feels argued out in real time rather than just executed. Two and a half hours of this music shouldn’t fly by, but it does.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — February 2014 — Editor’s Choice
- Gramophone Awards — 2014 — Finalist – Baroque Instrumental
- Diapason d’Or de l’Année — 2013 — Winner – Musique baroque instrumentale
“Entirely devoid of contrived preciousness or formulaic complacency, this is simply magnificent.”
— Gramophone Magazine
Michala Petri (recorder) & Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord)
OUR Recordings · 6220610 · 65 minutes
Corelli wrote these sonatas for violin, but honestly, hearing them on recorder feels less like a stretch and more like a revelation — the instrument’s breathy immediacy brings out something conversational in the writing that a violin can smooth over. Petri and Esfahani clearly refuse to treat this music as museum-piece elegance; there’s real bite and wit in how they trade phrases, especially in the faster movements where you can practically hear them grinning at each other. It’s the kind of recording that makes you rethink an entire era of music you thought you already understood.
Awards:
- BBC Music Magazine — February 2015 — Chamber Choice
- Gramophone Magazine — January 2015 — Editor’s Choice
- Building a Library — May 2018 — Also recommended
- International Classical Music Awards — 2016 — Winner – Baroque Instrumental
“Petri and Esfahani’s is an invigorating ensemble effort, each sparking off the other to foster a captivating directness whether sparkling or soulful. Nothing is safe or reverential, and yet…”
— BBC Music Magazine
Gail Hennessy, Rachel Chaplin (oboes) & Peter Whelan (bassoon)
La Serenissima, Adrian Chandler
Avie · AV2371 · 76 minutes
There’s something delightfully cheeky about the title here, because what Adrian Chandler and La Serenissima are really doing is tracing how deeply Vivaldi’s fingerprints ended up on composers who came after him, Tartini included. Gail Hennessy, Rachel Chaplin, and Peter Whelan bring a real conversational warmth to the wind writing, which makes the whole thing feel less like a lecture on influence and more like eavesdropping on old friends. That Tartini E major concerto really is the emotional center of the disc, and Chandler digs into the slow movement with a kind of unhurried tenderness that makes the surrounding virtuosity hit even harder.
Awards:
- Gramophone Magazine — May 2017 — Editor’s Choice
- Gramophone Awards — 2017 — Winner – Baroque Instrumental
“The highlight of the disc for me is Chandler’s performance of a seldom-played E major Violin Concerto by Tartini: he explores fully the rich poetic content of its slow movement while projecting…”
— BBC Music Magazine
Gottfried von der Goltz (violin and director)
Freiburger Barockorchester
Aparté · AP190 · 70 minutes
Corelli wrote these concertos for small forces, but he apparently loved beefing them up when he had the players available, and that’s exactly the spirit Gottfried von der Goltz and the Freiburgers chase here. The result has a real sense of occasion — bigger textures, richer colour, more theatrical weight than the standard chamber-sized approach — without ever losing the clarity and dance-like lift that makes Corelli so satisfying in the first place. Throw in the rarely heard Sinfonia to Santa Beatrice d’Este and you’ve got 70 minutes that feel genuinely exploratory rather than just another traditional run through the Op. 6 set.
Awards:
- Presto Editor’s Choice — December 2018
- The Times Records of the Year — 2019
“Great fun, this: inspired by evidence that Corelli himself was partial to upscaling his concerti grossi (originally scored for strings-only) when resources and circumstances permitted, Gottfried…”
— Presto Music
