There are for most of us definitive interpretations of familiar works, some of them live, some recorded. We can never quite put them out of our minds when listening to further performances. For me, the definitive recorded version of the Corelli concertos remains Trevor Pinnock’s; no one else has yet captured so well the spirit, and in particular the harmonic intensity, of these works.
That said, Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante play with all the precision and virtuosity one could wish for. The concertino ornamentation is often daring, as are some of the tempos. They have opted to use a light, off-the-string bow stroke as the norm, which enables them to produce almost transparent textures. There are moments, as in the sprightly Allegro of the Christmas Concerto, when everyone seems to be playing on a single bow hair. Elsewhere, they achieve what I can only describe as a gently brushed effect in such movements as the Adagio of Concerto No. 4 or the first Allegro of No. 6. The harpsichord continuo playing of Ergio Ciomei and the cellist Maurizio Naddeo is exquisite throughout, and the organist Fabio Bonizzoli contributes artfully, here and there (for example, the Allegro of Concerto No. 1 and the Adagio of No. 12), to the concertino ensemble timbre.
However, Biondi and Europa Galante romp through these works, indulging here and there in a little well-placed rubato, with seemingly hardly a glance at the harmony. For all their sophistication, and even wit, these performances fail to convey the dynamism crafted into the sequences and trills, the pathos of the suspensions, the engagement of the antiphonal and echo effects: elements central to Pinnock’s interpretation. Certainly, the lightness of their preferred bowing would have hampered the projection of these elements, though one begins to suspect that they were never priorities. Where is the exhilarating joy of the opening Allegro of Concerto No. 4? Where is the passion of the slow movements? Without due attention to the harmony, these performances are, ultimately, deprived of drama and represent, at best, understated reflections of Corelli’s flesh-and-blood music. The humanity of this music, fired by virtuosity, inspired a generation of concerto composers, most notable among them Handel. This quality is what, ideally, should inform readings of these works.'