The sonatas presented in this recording, labelled as 'Sonate à Violino e Viola' in the autograph score at the Biblioteca Musicale Greggiati in Ostiglia and as 'Sonate Per Violin solo con accompagnamento di Viola' in the parts at the Salzburg Museum, are likely to date back to the very beginning of Luigi Gatti’s stay in Salzburg.

The autograph is written on paper whose watermarks suggest a date of about 1783. If so, the works were probably commissioned by archbishop Colloredo, for whom a similar cycle of six sonatas was composed in the same year by Michael Haydn (MH 335–38) and W A Mozart (K.423–24), in which case the violin part was probably intended for Colloredo himself, a “good performer on the violin” according to Charles Burney. The archbishop was also said to “enjoy performing on the violin, which he played very well” and to be in the habit of “mingling with the court musicians and playing the violin with them” before dinner.

Liner notes are by Alessandro Lattanzi, the world’s leading authority on Luigi Gatti.

These sonatas have been played and recorded on two of the most beautiful instruments from the Violins Collection of the Municipality of Cremona: a Stradivari 1727 violin (the so-called Vesuvius") and an Amati 1615 viola ("La Stauffer").