The Avison Ensemble - Corelli: Opus 6 - The Independent
The principal pleasure lay in the Avison Ensemble's sheer excellence. Their period instrumentation - two violins, a cello, an archlute, plus an organ or harpsichord - was perfectly suited to the Kings Place acoustic, and the works were wittily introduced.
It was ear-opening to hear pieces by Stradella, Domenico Gabrieli, and Giovanni Romano, while Corelli's Trios were a reminder of what a trail-blazer he was, above all in his setting of ‘La folia' which Rachmaninov was to rework so magically two centuries later.