The wonkish quality of this disc is freely acknowledged by American-Canadian viola d'amore player
Thomas Georgi, who at one point writes in the booklet, "To those who have never played a stringed instrument, the following explanations on the background of the works and the use of the instrument may be altogether obscure: please don't hesitate to skip ahead. Or, please excuse my zeal as I try to explain." General listeners get very little explanation of what will probably be the main attraction for many of them, the unusual instrument itself. The viola d'amore was one of the various individualistic viols of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that were supplanted by the instruments of the modern string family; it had six or seven playing strings, and its sound was often complemented by a group of sympathetic strings. One learns instead about notational and transcription problems in restoring these works from the violin versions in which most of them survive. The title "Stockholm Sonatas" and the cover picture of that city likewise do little to help the listener get situated; the name is apparently
Georgi's own invention and refers merely to the use of a Stockholm library manuscript in preparing the performance edition; Ariosti was merely one of the many Italians who went to seek his fame and fortune entertaining London's middle classes. The distinction of Lessons and Sonatas is likewise
Georgi's own; all the pieces consist of three or four short dance or tempo-indicated movements, and the only difference with the sonatas seems to be that
Georgi assembled them himself from bits of other sets. The wonkish quality of the disc, however, is also its strength; recordings of music for viola d'amore are rare, as are the instruments themselves, and the music here is valuable for its investigation into a piece of the history of the string family. The music is not terribly compelling; it has a choppy, monotonous quality. But several movements are, as
Georgi points out, quite funny, with a romping mood that is unusual for the Baroque. The performances are top-notch, with a well-chosen continuo pair of theorbo (or archlute) and gamba (or great bass viol) that can stand up to the sonorous viola d'amore, and a Baroque audience would have found the music unusual in just the way the modern listener will. This disc will be of the most value to large Baroque collections, library or individual.