"The performers make the most of Italian spirit and songfulness with natural, not forced tempos throughout. The reproduction is first class." - GOLDBERG The Op. 1 of Dall’Abaco (1675-1742) consists of chamber sonatas for violin solo and continuo, and dates from ca. 1705-06 during his stay in Brussels. Op. 3 consists of twelve church and chamber sonatas for two violins and bass, from his time in France. In this French period he was almost obliged to try to adapt the technical and stylistic tools acquired in his Italian apprenticeship to the peculiarities of the French style. The elements of modernity that Dall’Abaco’s music reveals do not alter its basically conservative quality. The structural balance of his music makes it an ideal representation of the Baroque sonata at the height of its classicity, by the purity and craft of its design. It would be hard not to acknowledge that the pages recorded for this CD may be considered – as far as melodic inventiveness, variety, and expressive power – to be the least conventional and most cleverly structured of their kind.