# Corelli Concerto Grossi: Period instruments or modern instruments?



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I recently checked out a Corelli Concerto Grossi set on modern instruments and I was in bliss! I usually like period instruments on some sort of principle, but this recording was heavenly, divine, golden. I knew there was a reason I was so impressed with Corelli before on a deep emotional level, and not just a structurally appreciative level, and it was probably because I heard it the first time on modern instruments. Perhaps it was just my mood. OR another theory: perhaps it was due to it being in modern pitch; I'm thinking of the opening to the first one, in D major. For some reason the recording I have is a whole step below in C major, so its not even 415. But hearing it in D major was so uplifting. It also turned what I previously thought of as a summer morning piece into a winter morning piece.

What are your thoughts? What are the best recordings you've heard of these wonderful gemlike works?


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## HerlockSholmes (Sep 4, 2011)

Period performances are the only performances worth listening to!

Unless it's Glenn Gould playing Bach . . .


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

HerlockSholmes said:


> Period performances are the only performances worth listening to!
> 
> Unless it's Glenn Gould playing Bach . . .


Then how do you explain my experience?!? And please don't say bad taste or something of the like, I know I felt it deeply!


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## HerlockSholmes (Sep 4, 2011)

clavichorder said:


> Then how do you explain my experience?!? And please don't say bad taste or something of the like, I know I felt it deeply!


Opinions and tastes differ, obviously. I only like period performances (Except when Gould plays Bach), you like modern. Neither of us has bad tastes nor better tastes. Simple as that.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

HerlockSholmes said:


> Opinions and tastes differ, obviously. I like period performances (Except when Gould plays Bach), you like modern. Neither of us has bad tastes nor better tastes. Simple as that.


Its no fun when you are this reasonable.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

In my opinion Corelli is so far back in time that I would have thought that none-period performances would be something of a novelty. Along with Albinoni's op. 5 I think his op. 6 concertos are the oldest instrumental repertoire I have. Of the op. 6 concertos I have got the DG recording by Pinnock's English Consort and although I don't play them often I'm still perfectly happy with it but I would be interested to hear from anyone else who has heard them on more modern instruments.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

elgars ghost said:


> In my opinion Corelli is so far back in time that I would have thought that none-period performances would be something of a novelty. Along with Albinoni's op. 5 I think his op. 6 concertos are the oldest instrumental repertoire I have. Of the op. 6 concertos I have got the DG recording by Pinnock's English Consort and although I don't play them often I'm still perfectly happy with it but I would be interested to hear from anyone else who has heard them on more modern instruments.


They remind one of popular recordings of Vivaldi's four seasons when played on modern instruments, or say Handel's Water Music, there is something very lush about it, and because these are the recordings I grew up with, it reminds me of my childhood. It can really comfort you and I think it suits a wintery mood better in modern pitch, D Major. I think I have Pinnock as well though I'm not sure, and it is in C major, which is below 415 and certainly below 440.


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## HerlockSholmes (Sep 4, 2011)

clavichorder said:


> Its no fun when you are this reasonable.


Should I start the belligerent shouting with dogmatic all-caps rage?


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

HerlockSholmes said:


> Should I start the belligerent shouting with dogmatic all-caps rage?


Maybe that would be overkill...I've never seen you do that yet anyway.

I'm really not sure what I like actually. It was just that I hadn't heard modern performances of these piece and it gave me such nostalgia for its easy comparison to so many pieces I loved when younger. I definitely prefer Haydn and CPE Bach on period instruments, J.S. Bach as well, but there was something about this performance that really satisfied me. I'll have to post the recording when I get a chance to check what it was.


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## jalex (Aug 21, 2011)

HerlockSholmes said:


> Period performances are the only performances worth listening to!
> 
> Unless it's Glenn Gould playing Bach . . .


Or Bohm conducting. For me anyway.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Corelli's opus 6 reached "classic" status when printed. It served as _the_ model for many, many composers following the multi-movement Corellian form of the concerto grosso (as opposed to the Vivaldian three movement form). It was also no coincidence that Handel also wrote a set of twelve concertos, also published as opus 6, based on the Correllian multi-movement format.

Corelli's were a very sensous set of work. But it appeared to be a collection of bits and pieces written over many years, like a summary of his best works. The Handel set was not so: all 12 were written in about 4 weeks in a concentrated burst of inspiration, averaging about 2 to 4 days per concerto (autographs were dated). Unfortunately for Corelli, Handel's opus 6 surpassed his, which together with Bach's _Brandenburgs_, represented the very peak of Baroque instrumental music.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Oh, as for period instruments or not, The English Concert has done a very fine set of the Corelli opus 6.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

*@ clavichorder *- As for what you like, you can like both or one or the other, it's up to you.

In terms of what I prefer, I think either is okay for me, "modern" or HIP. I had these concertos ages ago on tape on Hungaroton label with Janos Rolla directing the Ferenc Liszt Chamber Orch. of Budapest. I'm not sure, but I think they were "modern," but I do remember they included some with harpsichord and/or small organ doing the ornamentation/continuo. I think they were on modern instruments but playing in a HIP way, if that makes sense, like the Italian group I Musici (who were the first to record _The Four Seasons _back in the 1950's when it was unearthed).

I have also been to concerts by the Australian Chamber Orch., which is a modern instruments group, but they play everything. They often throw in a Corelli concerto as a "filler" in their gigs. I think I enjoyed the 7th concerto the most if my memory is right. It actually works to throw in such a work between say Bartok's _Divertimento_ and something by maybe a more conservative composer of today because as member HC says above, these _Concerti Grossi _were/are enormously influential works, esp. regarding string playing and composition. If you are going to compose something for massed strings, you bloody well have to know them, no doubt about that.

So basically I think it's good idea to have both HIP and modern recordings, but I'm leaning towards whatever the Budapest group I had on tape were, they were great, it's still in my memory now. Unfortunately no way for me to get that recording, Hungaroton have stopped distributing in this country with is great - NOT!!!  (but at least Supraphon are still going here, probably only just, it's now a matter of just the multinationals, or almost)...


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