Flights Of Fantasy – Early Italian Chamber Music

Irish Baroque Orchestra Chamber Soloists Avie AV 2202 ****

The flights of fantasy that gave this disc its title are probably best exemplified in the two largest pieces, each more than 15 minutes long. Farina’s

Capriccio Stravagante

uses all manners and means to imitate anything from cats and dogs to guitars. Partia VI from Biber’s

Harmonia Artificiosa

employs the non-standard string tunings known as scordatura to provide sonorities that are not otherwise possible. Biber’s flights can also send the players scurrying around the place in almost implausibly rapid steps. There’s a more melancholy tone to Legrenzi’s

La Fugazza

and an even darker hue to Marini’s Passacaglio à 4. The Irish Baroque Orchestra Chamber Soloists and their director, Monica Huggett, take all these challenges, and the others offered by Castello, Cavalli, Bertali and Frescobaldi, imaginatively in their stride. See url.ie/55bd