CORELLI: Opus 1 and 3 Church Sonatas [TrackList follows] = The Avison Ensemble – Linn

CORELLI: Opus 1 and 3 Church Sonatas [TrackList follows] = The Avison Ensemble – Linn CKD 414 (2 SACDs), 147:53 [4-29-14] [Distr. by Naxos] ****:

The Avison Ensemble finishes up their complete recording for Linn of Corelli’s chamber music, celebrating the the 300th anniversary of the composer’s death, with musically affectionate, stylistically expert but ultimately mostly dutiful performances of all 49 tracks of the Opus 1 and 3 Church Sonatas which became cornerstones of his wealth and reputation.

In music that really depends on making connections at a profoundly intimate level through nuance, color and virtuosity, and in which Beznosiuk and the Avisons have proved themselves capable of achieving on many of their previous recordings, here it sounds like 49 relentless instead of miraculous tracks. Very pleasant for extended background listening of the public radio classical music kind.

There is nothing wrong with the sound, recorded at St. George;’s Church in the Cambridge superb of Chesterton,  which is warm and detailed in the conventional mode and with more breathing room in surround SACD, while Simon D.I. Fleming’s splendidly eliptical and informative liner notes give a dynamic sense of Corelli’s life and times.

TrackList:

Track Listing – Disc 2

—Laurence Vittes