Locatelli : Chamber Music for Flute and Violin Sonatas

1995 will see the 300th birthday of that great Italian composer Pietro Antonio Locatelli, who is still especially known today for his almost unplayable violin music (L'Arte del Violino).

For this CD, especially produced for the Locatelli year, we have made a representative selection from his relatively unknown chamber music compositions, all works published by the composer himself in Amsterdam, the city where he went to live in 1729, where he died in 1764, and where he was buried in the English Reformed Church (where the cover picture for this CD was taken...).

The recording was made under the auspices of the International Locatelli Foundation (Fondazione Pietro Antonio Locatelli) in Cremona, Italy, which also provided the musicians of the Schönbrunn Ensemble with copies of the first editions of the works and this has resulted in the most authentic performances one could wish for.

In the booklet introductions to Locatelli and to the works on this CD, written by Dr. Anna Cattoretti of the Fondazione Pietro Antonio Locatelli.

All the members of the Schönbrunn Ensemble are well-known soloists in their own right Marten Root is first flutist in the ensemble Anima Eterna and in John Eliot Gardiner's Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantige. Johannes Leertouwer is leader of Anima Eterna and of the Baroque Orhestra of the Netherlands Bach Society. Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen plays in Frans Brüggen's Orceshtra of the 18th Century. Viola de Hoog is the cellist of the renowned Schönberg Quartet and first cello of Anima Eterna. Richard Egarr, harpsichordist of London Baroque, has recently received great critical acclaim for his complete recording of Froberger's Keyboard Works for Globe.

The first and undoubtedly most interesting contribution to the Locatelli year!