Subissati: Violin Sonatas

Not very much is known about the violinist Aldebrando Subissati. He was born in Fossombrone, a city near Urbino, and was probably trained as a violinist in Rome. He was active at the royal court of John II Casimir in Warsaw from 1645 until 1654, was also employed by Leopold I of Austria and belonged to the retinue of Empress Christina of Sweden. Although he surely composed numerous works, only the violin sonatas recorded here have survived. Two years before his death, Subissati compiled this collection of 19 sonatas for the nobleman Alessandro Barcellini. This volume provides a very diversified overview of what a sonata was understood to be during this period. Contrasting sections follow one another, whereby the violin always plays the leading role, of course. The continuo confines itself to providing the soloist with an adequate harmonic foundation above which the most daring melodic figurations adventurously take place. In the course of this, Subissati used a manner of composition typical of the violin on which the ingenious Corelli was to put his stamp slightly thereafter. • These sonatas are interpreted by Alessandro Ciccolini, one of Italy’s leading baroque violinists. The continuo group also features outstanding musicians – Gaetano Nasillo, Karl-Ernst Schröder and Luca Scandali.