For a composer without an anniversary (though he was without doubt at the height of his powers 200 years ago), Corelli has done very well for recordings in the last year: this is the third disc of his trio sonatas that I have reviewed in recent months. But while it brings new insights to the music, it provides (like its predecessors) a medley rather than the contents of any one of the Opp. 1–4 sets; that some of the trio sonatas have yet to be recorded by an early-music ensemble reflects the current tendency to avoid the tyranny of recording 'complete works'.
And although these are trio sonatas, it is always the force and technique of the first violinist that sets the seal on a performance. Monica Huggett's place among her peers, like Simon Standage, Catherine Mackintosh or Ingrid Seiffert, is undisputed—indeed, at her best she is unmatched. She plays here with her usual wit and magic, at the same time giving more attention to the sheer beauty of her sound than has until recently been generally associated with playing in an authentic style. Her interpretation of these works is shapely and light, intimate, in contrast to the bravura of The English Concert (Archiv Produktion 419 614-2AH, 6/87), though without the transparency of texture achieved by London Baroque (EMI Reflexe EL270600-1, CDC7 49965-2, 3/88). Five of the works on this disc are in minor keys, which Corelli imbued with a unique and quite exquisite yearning quality (in spite of the many imitations that might have blunted our sensitivity to it), now a hallmark of his style. Huggett is aware of this quality, especially in Op. 3 Nos. 4 and 7, and conveys it by her tone and unerring sense of phrasing if not always with her heart. Occasionally the ornamentation is a trifle perfunctory—tossed off that bit too effortlessly (as in Op. 4 No. 12).
Alison Bury is a deft second fiddle, though her playing is not so sensuously charged as Huggett's. They play well together, if without the rapport of Standage and Comberti (Archiv) or Seiffert and Gwilt (EMI), probably because the ensemble isn't an established one of long standing. The cellist Jaap ter Linden contributes flashes of lightning in Op. 3 No. 12 and Op. 4 No. 8, Hopkinson Smith's plucked accompaniment in Op. 1 No. 9 and Op. 3 No. 9—and particularly in Op. 3 No. 4—is elegantly realized. I particularly liked Ton Koopman's organ accompaniment in Op. 1 No. 9.'