It is relatively rare to be able to welcome a disc devoted to violin sonatas by a single Baroque composer which does not concentrate on just one opus number. John Holloway serves up a sonata from each of Francesco Maria Veracini’s four principal collections – ranging from the early unpublished set composed in Venice in 1716, to the two published sets with opus numbers from 1721 and 1744 respectively, to the unusual Dissertazioni of around 1760 – thereby providing us with subtly different facets of this under-recorded but major figure on the 18th-century violin scene.

And while it is true that the Corellian force is strong in this one, it certainly does not obscure Veracini’s own robustly confident musical personality. The Op 2 Sonate accademiche in particular demonstrate how the Corellian model can be expanded by paying a little extra attention to some of its unrealised contrapuntal and violinistic possibilities – a point which Veracini makes even more clearly in the explicit homage that is the Dissertazioni, in which he ‘fills out’ Corelli’s Op 5 sonatas, doing to them something akin to what Godowsky later did to Chopin’s Etudes.

John Holloway’s ECM discography has so far included stimulating recordings of Biber and Schmelzer, and the latest visit in his company to unfamiliar violin territory proves a no less rewarding experience. His sound is lean and wiry and, while certainly never undernourished or bland (the music’s many double-stops are gutsily done, and elsewhere Holloway can achieve a delicious sweetness), it may be an acquired taste for some listeners, as also the resonance of the recording. But his playing is as intelligent and free-flowingly musical as ever, with each movement thoughtfully characterised, and he is backed by a first-rate continuo team who really come into their own in the almost orchestrally rich diversity of textures in the Op 2 sonata (the muted fiddle, pizzicato cello and lute-stopped harpsichord of the Andante moderato are a delight). A Baroque-violin must.