As both composer and violin virtuoso, Corelli’s reputation and fame was immense. In this regard, there is no lack of important sources bearing witness to a genuine enthusiasm for his music, which was welcomed as a revelation, an illumination, a pure and refined distillation of the traditional language of the Baroque sonata and Italian style.

It is not difficult to imagine how the compositions of Corelli would have circulated all over Europe, being performed, listened to, copied and also transcribed. Among musicians, there was a veritable legion of composers influenced by Corelli’s models. This phenomenon is one of the reasons for the existence of a transcription for bass viola da gamba and continuo of Corelli’s Opus 5, originally composed for violin and continuo.

The manuscript used for the present recording contains all 12 sonatas and can be found in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It is of anonymous authorship, most likely originating in the German-speaking world. The transcription was probably made on the basis of a copy of the original edition for violin printed in Rome in 1700, the only autograph edition.

Guido Balestracci is considered to be “one of the finest exponents of the viola da gamba” (Diapason, 2002). As a soloist and as director of his ensemble L'Amoroso, founded in 1997, he plays throughout Europe, the USA, South America and Asia. On the present recording, he is accompanied by such known artists as Paolo Pandolfo, Eduardo Egüez and Gaetano Nasillo.