Arcangelo Corelli: `New Orpheus of Our Times' (Oxford Monographs on Music) - Tapa dura

Ostensibly mundane details, about payments to musicians, for instance, convey a vivid picture of the palaces, theatres and outdoor carnivals for which Corelli played and composed ... he not only adds to the sum of scholarly information but also, by the enthusiasm and the vividness of his contextual descriptions, enhances appreciation of the music itself ... while the scholarship is meticulous, there is much to appeal to the general reader ... Chapters on Corelli's subsequent influence, eight handsome plates, and 47 pages of musical examples complete a timely reappraisal of a celebrated yet strangely elusive figure. (George Pratt, BBC Music, November 1999)

gives a much-needed update to our view of Corelli. It encapsulates a formidable amount of information about a repertoire which has always been popular, particularly in England. (Ann Bond, Musical Times, Winter 99)

The first full-length study for forty years, Arcangelo Corelli offers a much needed reassessment of the seminal composer's life and works. His current historical perspective is still largely conditioned by the opinions of Burney and Hawkins in the late 18th century who saw him as the consolidator of past trends rather than an instigator―a view fully endorsed in the two biographies of the present century. Neither of these writers was truly in a position to make such judgements if only because neither was aware of the contributions of the Roman School to which Corelli emphatically affirmed his allegiance. Extensive archival research over recent years now dispels much of the anecdote and hearsay accumulated over the centuries and makes possible a more balanced evaluation of Corelli's true status in the development of the prime instrumental genres, accounting for his phenomenal success both during his lifetime and in the creation of musical canon in the decades after his death.