Daniel Sepec - Pandolfi-Mealli: Sonatas for Violin & Continuo - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

His life, shrouded in mystery, offers plenty of room for speculation and fantasy Large parts of Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli's biography lie in unexplored and now probably also unexplorable darkness; he appears in various places, first secured in Innsbruck in 1660, then in Upper and Central Italy, he is preceded by a legendary reputation as a violin virtuoso, he publishes violin works, apparently without worrying about a stringent opus narrative, and it probably comes to a dramatic climax when he kills a fellow musician in a dispute in Messina in 1675 and then flees to France and finally to Madrid. His sonatas are no less fascinating To many they did indeed seem 'baroque', i. e. overloaded and bizarre, but today we recognise in them a fascinating link between the virtuoso Italian and the southern German-Austrian baroque instrumental style, with it's typical harsh contrasts and surprise effects. Daniel Sepec and his colleagues present them with their usual precision.