Marina Fragoulis, baroque violin
Margalit Cantor, baroque cello
Magdalena Baczewska, harpsichord

The earliest sonatas appeared in the early 1600s when musical developments in notation and the popular use of the printing press compelled composers to experiment increasingly with instrumental music. These sonatas are some of the earliest known instrumental works that explore musical thought with no obligation to text, whose bare bones notation allowed the performers the freedom to improvise, embellish and ornament. The music is vividly rhetorical, characterized by unpredictable shifts in mood, contrasting dynamics and short irregular phrases meant to leave the listener stirred and unsettled. Music by Pandolfi, Castello, Marini, Fontana and Bertali.