Geminiani: Concerto grosso Op. 2 No. 5 in D minor

The compositions recorded here are a significant example of musical taste as it spread to the other side of the English channel in the first decades of the 18th century. England welcomed the ‘Corellian’ style with such enthusiasm as to attract onto its banks a rich line-up of instrumentalists, singers, impresarios who with varying degrees of success contributed to the spread of the new Italian style based on the Sonata and the Concerto Grosso canonized in Corelli’s Op. V and VI. Francesco Geminiani arrived in London in 1714. As a direct disciple of Corelli, it was easy for him to become part of the musical life there in London, soon gaining great fame as a violinist. The six Concerti Grossi Op. II had the benefit of being performed publicly in concerts organised by Geminiani himself in the Hickford Room, with such favourable results that the composer was forced to expedite their publication in order to be ahead of possible pirated editions being prepared; after the first edition in 1732 there followed numerous reprints up to the end of the 1700’s, confirmation of a considerable and long-lasting success. Auser Musici is a vocal and instrumental ensemble which was founded in 1997 by Carlo Ipata. The public and critical reception of Auser Musici’s tours of Germany, France, Spain and the USA, as well as of their recordings, confirms the enormous interest in their work. German classical magazine Toccata Alte Musik wrote about the recording of Geminiani’s Concerti Grossi: “It seems as if these works were only waiting for Auser Musici.”