Baroque au yin - seductive music for late nights and a fine wine Teatro Lirico Anonymous Folias. Suite Caccini Amarilli mia bella Cazzati Balletto quarto, corrente quarta —Adaggio Corelli 12 Violin Sonatas, Op 5—No 10; No 12, 'La follia' Farina Sonata 'La desperata' Foscarini Aria della Fulia variata Granata Sonata Stubbs Arpeggiata a modo mio Teatro Lirico (Milo Valent zm/va Maxine Ei!ander bps Erin Headley vii dii gamba/liro) Stephen Stubbs bq gt-r/chit ECM New Series (D 476 3101 (74' • DDD)

This characteristically imaginative disc from ECM announces its intentions right from the beginning with a snatch from somewhere in the middle of

Corelli's La foil/a, quickly followed by a coolly improvised set of variations on that same compelling chordsequence. Thus are introduced the disc's twin themes: 'La follia', which surfaces in variations for guitar by Foscarini and for harp by Anon from the Spanish Luzy norte collection, as well as in a second impromptu treatment by the members of Teatro Lirico; and improvisation and fantasy, represented by various free-wheeling sonatas, a violinistic gloss on Caccini's aria Arnariili rn/a belia, a delicate improvisation on Baroque guitar by the group's director Stephen Stubbs, and a sparky set of pieces from a Slovakian manuscript, some given a darkly authentic folksy twist by Slovakian violinist Milo

Valent. Corelli makes a return in another sonata snippet, this time in Op 5 No 10 with the melody shared between violin and gamba, but the complete 'Follia' is given the day off for once.

The ringing 17th-century sound world of bowed and plucked strings will be familiar to those who know the recordings of continuo-led groups such as The Harp Consort or Stubbs's other group Tragicomedia, but this is a programme driven more by mood and fancy than by desire to make historical points. The result is some soothing music-making - the improvised pieces are gentle and undemanding on the listener - broken up occasionally by the more forcefully active and virtuoso music of the sonatas, which come across in this context as truly Baroque inventions. Valent's playing is a particular joy in the Farina, brilliant and full of agile changeability of character, but then this is a disc full of fine musicianship. The recording is typical for ECM, which is to say richly atmospheric and seductive. A perfect disc for late night and a red wine. Lindsay Kemp