When Enrico Gatti and Ensemble Aurora first started recording on Baroque instruments back in the early 1990s, they were among the first Italians to do so. One disc of Corelli trio sonatas (Tactus, 4/91) was criticised in these pages for simply being too slow, and perhaps drew similar comments elsewhere too, because for their 1998 release of the 12 Op 3 Trios (along with seven early and less expertly made sonatas the composer never chose to publish), Gatti contributed to the booklet a wide-ranging Socratic dialogue “in praise of slowness” that was long and thoughtful enough to make any hasty critic think again. That essay is reproduced in this reissue, and is no less fascinating now.

Fascinating because, as well as the lesson in aesthetics, Gatti and his colleagues deliver one in how to play Baroque chamber music in a way that is beautiful and involving without resorting to tearaway tempi. Anyone who has heard Aurora’s recent Vivaldi chamber music recordings for Glossa will already know this to be a familiar part of Gatti’s artistic make-up, but it is good to be reminded that it was ever so. Since these recordings were made we have heard Corelli performances which have sought out the passionate performing style of contemporary accounts (Andrew Manze’s brilliant Op 5 – Harmonia Mundi, 4/03 – springs to mind), but here are expert Baroque musicians putting the emphasis firmly on the revered composer of classical restraint, grace and perfection. Indeed, that these sonatas are polished gems that benefit from a little respect has surely never been better shown than here. In performances that are not actually all that slow – “unhurried” would be a better word – the beauties of Corelli’s noble counterpoint emerge from Aurora’s measured “on-the-string” style, and every sonata has its own weight and substance. If that has the side-effect of making them a slightly less comfortable listen when played end-to-end, so be it – it was not what Corelli intended for them anyway. The airier Corelli recordings by London Baroque and the Purcell Quartet still have their place – but these excellent reissued performances give strong reason to pause for thought.