This is a very interesting and convenient set to own of Muzio Clementi's sonatas for piano and other instruments in contrast to his great sonatas for the piano alone!

Although known almost exclusively for his instrumental concertos and the spurious Adagio attributed to him, Tomaso Albinoni was mainly a man of the theater; he composed 81 operas and, late in life, made his living as a singing coach. However, the best efforts of posterity to catch up with Albinoni's operatic creations are significantly stymied by the fact that only three of his stage works are fully extant, the rest preserved only in occasional and fugitive fragments in the form of single arias and other bits and pieces. "Il Nascimento dell'Aurora" is a serenata – or more specifically, a "festa pastorale" – a kind of courtly entertainment not really meant to be specifically dramatic or compelling and, in this case, dealing with the birth of Roman goddess of the dawn, Aurora ….

Among the great instrumental composers who were active in Italy in the 18th century, Giuseppe Tartini (Pirano d’Istria, 1692 - Padova, 1770) is the one who most explicitly focussed his production on his own chosen instrument, the violin, neglecting genres that in his day were very popular. 135 violin concertos and about 200 sonatas for violin and basso continuo form, in fact, the main bulk of his output. The Arte dell’Arco ensemble, who have met with great success with this series, measure themselves once again with Tartini’s beautiful and difficult concertos, all works recorded here for the first time.

We still know little about the biographical details of the violinist and composer Antonio Lolli, one of the most extraordinary itinerant virtuosi of the eighteenth century. Active from 1758 at the court of Stuttgart, Lolli became famous through his concert tours in Europe, whose excessive frequency led to his dismissal from the German court in 1774. In 1785 he performed in London, then he moved to Vienna, to Naples and in 1796 he finally settled in Palermo, where he died in poverty having gambled away most of the fortune he had accumulated through his activity as a soloist.

Frattamaggiore, 31 March 1684; d Naples, 30 Sept 1755). Italian composer. A pupil of his uncle in Naples, he also spent time in Rome and probably abroad before working as primo maestro at the Naples conservatory Poveri di Gesù Cristo, 1728-39. From 1742 he was primo maestro at's Maria di Loreto, the largest Neapolitan conservatory, and from 1745 also at StOnofrio. He was venerated as the finest composition teacher in Naples; among his pupils were Pergolesi, Anfossi and Piccinni.

(b S Maria, 1663-4; d Paris, 24 April 1760). Italian composer. After travelling through Europe as a violinist, he won great popularity in Paris. A figurehead of Italian instrumental music there, he published 100 violin sonatas and 16 other works, 1704-38, in a Corellian style modified with French features.

Discovered by Michael Talbot in 1973, the 12 sonatas of the Manchester manuscript are generally considered the high point of the composer's chamber music. They are performed here by Fabio Biondi, one of the most authoritative Vivaldi performers.

"The Gramophone Database has seldom been without a decent recording of these ceaselessly fascinating concertos, though none begins to approach this new version in respect of fantasy and exuberance...this new two-CD issue has restored my faith in [Europa Galante's] ability to bring something entirely fresh and vital to oft-performed repertoire, illuminating well-trodden paths with affective articulation and eloquently voiced inflexions...immensely satisfying." -NA, Gramophone