Bart Coen & Mario Sarrechia, Baroque without canon stress: the Parensi-papers

In 1880, a manuscript appeared in Parma with the wonderfully sober title Sinfonie di varij autori. No grand claims, but more than twenty sonatas for recorder and basso continuo, collected by merchant-musician Paolo Antonio Parensi. Between 1705 and 1725, he noted what was trendy in Northern Italy: Corelli and Albinoni, but also Valentini, Sarri, and composers who barely ring a bell today. Some works have not been preserved anywhere else. Bart Coen and Mario Sarrechia open the time capsule with curious ears and nimble precision. Arrangements of violin and oboe sonatas alternate with pieces that were explicitly written for recorder. And via Fiocco – a Brussels native with Italian flair and French elegance – the story also gets a Belgian tail. Goodbye canon: finally, we get to see not only the top of the iceberg, but also the fascinating underwater landscape!