Torelli: 12 Concerti Grossi op. 8

Giuseppe Torelli, whose native land was Veneto, is deservedly included among the composers who contributed
to the renown and success of the Bolognese School, which was undoubtedly one of the keystones of Italian
Baroque music, together with the Venetian, Roman and Neapolitan Schools. Torelli’s production that has been
handed down to us includes almost 200 works, most of them chamber-music instrumental compositions and
orchestral pieces with solo performers. Eight of these works are in print, practically all of them published in
Bologna from 1686 onwards. The 12 concerti grossi con una Pastorale per il Santissimo Natale, posthumous work no.
8 from 1709, published by Felice Torelli, brother of the composer and celebrated painter, are undoubtedly his
most inspired work, and not only for their extremely high musical quality. The collection is divided into two
parts: six pieces are actual Concerti Grossi, while the other six are Concerti for violin and orchestra. The solo
violinists Jérémie Chigioni and Roberto Noferini (already interpreter of the world’s first recording of Paganini’s
Capricci on historical violin, v. Tactus tc 781690) are at the head of the Ensemble Locatelli from Bergamo,
concerted and directed by Chiara Cattani.