VARIOUS ARTISTS - Recorder Music:Marcello,Vivaldi,Bellinza (Sealed) (CD)

18th-century Venetian sonatas for flute and recorder in opulently scored, historically informed performances. Venice supported a healthy industry of both recorder manufacture and music for the instrument during the 18th century. Benedetto Marcello and the lesser-known Paolo Benedetto Bellinzani (1686 -1757) both composed stylish collections of sonatas for the Baroque flute which are excerpted here, interpolated with the arrangement of a concerto by Vivaldi, drawn from his ‘L’estro armonico’ collection and originally scored for two violins and orchestra. The collections by Bellinzani and Marcello were among the first such dedicated to the recorder to be published in Italy; each sonata within them follows a Corellian template of four brief movements alternating slow and fast tempi, lively in spirit whatever the speed. The works by Bellinzani make an especially attractive discovery: In their day his compositions enjoyed great popularity, for their unusual combination of learned counterpoint and sensitively moulded melody.