# Baroque Strings Only Music?



## Margaret (Mar 16, 2009)

I'm looking for Baroque music for multiple strings only. No solo string; _especially no continuo_. Lately every piece I find seems to have the continuo being played. If this were the Classical era I could just look under "string quartet, quintet" etc. But not in the Baroque era.


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## PostMinimalist (May 14, 2008)

That's a tough one! There are some arrangements of Baroque music for stings with no continuo such as the Academy of St Martins in the Fields version of the Art of Fugue by JS Bach and Purcells Aria 'When I am Laid in Eartth' orchestrsted by Dimtris Metropoulos. Purcell's Fantasies are played without continuo but when you get to high baroque it is very rare. There are old recordings of the Corelli Conceti Grossi Op 6 with no continuo but Authentic Preformance practice has put these out of fashion for good. I hope you find something. There are of course lots of solos and duets from this period such as the Bach solo suites and Telemann's Guilivers Travels duets.


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## vavaving (Apr 20, 2009)

Here are some recordings that appeal to me.

Giovanni Battista Sammartini:
Quintetti e Quartetti
Ensemble Aglaia
Stradivarius · STR 33426

Henry Purcell:
Fantazias / Pavan / Chacony / In nomine
London Baroque
BIS-CD-1165

Georg Philipp Telemann
Sonata 1 for 2 violins
Roxana Pavel Goldstein, violin · Elias Goldstein, violin
online: http://music.ibiblio.org/pub/multim...n_string_duo/2strings/violin-viola/index.html

Jean-Marie LeClair:
Duets for two Violins
Itzhak Perlman, violin · Pinchas Zukerman, violin
EMI · CDC 7 9321 2

Jean-Marie LeClair:
Sonata for Two Violins
Itzhak Perlman, violin · Pinchas Zukerman, violin
BMG · 60735-2-RC

Johann Sebastian Bach:
Inventions · Duets for violin and cello
Gautier Capuçon, cello / Renaud Capuçon, violin
Virgin · 0946 332626 2 1


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## Margaret (Mar 16, 2009)

Thanks for the recommendations!! Nice to know there's some as every time I tried to listen to something that was labeled strings it turned out to be for strings *and* continuo.



post-minimalist said:


> but Authentic Preformance practice has put these out of fashion for good.


 Don't I just know it. I remember when hearing a harpsichord was unusual. Now it's standard. It's completely putting me off baroque string sonatas.


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## nefigah (Aug 23, 2008)

Just going to note that just because continuo is there, doesn't _necessarily_ mean there's a harpsichord (though it's probably the most common). Continuo can be a combination of any instrument that can play a bassline + any instrument that can play chords.

Point being, I've definitely heard some recordings that use a lute or an organ instead of a harpsichord, for example, if you like those better.


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## danliex (Apr 11, 2009)

I would recommend this

John Stanley 
Concerto for Strings Op. 2 No. 3 in G major






Hope u will like it


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