Concerti Grossi

Abstract

Although published midway through the second decade of the eighteenth century, this concerto launches a set that seems to have existed in some form as early as the 1680s. Like seven other items from Corelli's Op. 6, this is a concerto da chiesa, or church concerto, its movements given abstract tempo markings rather than the dance titles of the chamber concerto.

All participants play a slow introduction, which leads straight into an Allegro pushed off by a smaller concertino ensemble. As usual in Corelli's concertos, the violins maintain imitative lines at close remove, over an extremely busy bass line; the movement breaks into several sections of highly contrasting tempo. The second full movement is a meditative Largo, led by the concertino group with minimal involvement of the larger ensemble. Next comes a fugal Allegro, followed by a final movement of quick tempo and frantic melodic figurations.

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