Released on digital format only, this new recording on Chaconne features some of the greatest pieces for violin that Italian baroque composers wrote while in London, performed by Simon Standage and harpsichord player Friederike Chylek.

From the astonishing debut of Nicola Matteis in the 1670s to the remarkable improvements in the violin sonata form by Felice Giardini after his first appearance in 1751, these composers, all influenced by Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713), marked an important period in the progress of the violin in England, and in renewed audience interest.

The album also features three keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, whose prolific writing influenced by Iberian folk music was highly regarded and widely circulated, especially in England where forty-two sonatas out of the 555 he composed were first published in 1739.

A specialist of the period, Simon Standage is a long-standing recording artist for Chandos, as violinist and a director of Collegium Music 90. He and Friederike Chylek contribute to booklet notes that add greatly to the value of this unusual yet relevant and revealing recording.