Purcell:
Chacony for strings & continuo

Telemann:
Ouverture-Suite for strings & continuo in g, TWV 55:g5

Nicola Matteis the Younger:
Concerto for violin, strings & continuo in B flat

Antonio Caldara:
Ouverture & Ballo to La Verita nell Inganno

Vivaldi:
Concerto II:
Il favorito for violin, strings & continuo in e, Opus 11, RV 277

Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello:
Ouverture-Suite in C for strings & continuo
Chaconne for strings & continuo in A

The latest release from renowned period ensemble La Serenissima celebrates the life and work of Nicola Matteis the Younger. Born in London to an Italian father and English mother, Matteis was immersed in the style of Henry Purcell before leaving England in 1700 for the Imperial Court in Vienna. All of the music on the album is – rather fortuitously – Carolean; either written for Charles II of England, or for (or in the realm of) Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. It is all too easy to think that the English style and English musicians were unknown on the continent in the early C18, but this selection of music shows that this wasn’t (always) the case. There are some cracking dances and dance suites featured here as well as a ravishingly beautiful Vivaldi concerto and two superb Chaconnes, one by an Englishman, and one by an Italian.