Giuseppe Tartini - Palladians - The Scotsman

Don't be put off by the Palladians' opening performance on this disc of Tartini's sonata The Devil's Trill, which takes the "affetuoso" in the first movement title to almost queasy extremes. For elsewhere, not least in the same composer's G minor sonata Didone abbandonata, this stylish baroque ensemble - Rodolfo Richter on violin, Susanne Heinrich on viola da gamba, Silas Standish on harpsichord and William Carter on lute - makes amends with playing that captures the sensual element of the Italian baroque without pulling it out of shape.

Indeed, when it comes to Francesco Maria Veracini's A major sonata, the performances are to die for - lean and clean, but softened with a genuine flair for the stylistic latitudes of the time.