Arparla Stradivarius STR 33881****

Arparla is an Italian/Irish husband-and-wife duo (Davide Monti, violin, and Maria Christina Cleary, harp) specialising in period performances of baroque music as well as works from the decades around 1800. In The Graces of the Violin in 17th century Italythey explore the work of a group of composers who were almost unheard of a few decades ago but who have become staples for today's baroque musicians: Biagio Marini, Tarquinio Merula, Giovanni Battista Fontana, Marco Uccellini. Their music is intensely expressive, emotionally volatile in a way that, in the right hands, always seems freewheelingly improvisatory. The light tone of the arpa doppia(double harp) sometimes seems almost too mild behind the violin, but the collection also offers harp solos, including a spectacularly chromatic Capriccio by Merula. See url.ie/7lbq