Various - Dresden

The Guardian 80

Zefiro/Bernardini
(Arcana)

Behind the justly famous and complex trio sonatas of Zelenka lies a wealth of other music for the same combination that was heard at the Dresden court of Augustus the Strong in the first decades of the 18th century. Gathered here and celebrated by Alfredo Bernardini’s superb Zefiro ensemble, this music emerges as far lighter than Zelenka’s but equally winning in its use of the bassoon as a solo instrument underpinning the duetting of two oboes. Telemann and Vivaldi are included alongside the totally unknown Arcangelo Califano, but the clear winner is Johann Friedrich Fasch, whose languorous, lilting slow movements are full of sensual dissonances.