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"Five Stars ... Petri and Esfahani's is an invigorating ensemble effort, each sparking off the other to foster a captivating directness whether sparkling or soulful. Nothing is safe or reverential and yet there's no iconoclastic agenda either." - BBC Music Magazine "Editor's Choice ... it's rare to experience the level of artistic rapport heard on this recording ... in Petri's capable hands, the recorder becomes a medium through which she conveys a more vocal interpretation of thematic material than ever a violin could ... Esfahani crafts the most imaginative and engaging accompaniments and repartee I have ever heard." - Gramophone Recorder player Michala Petri and harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani consulted numerous original sources to ensure authenticity prior to the recording of this Corelli programme during three inspired days in Copenhagen. But once tape was rolling, they let the excitement of their superlative music making be their only guide, giving free rein to boundless creativity and virtuosity and embracing the spontaneous spirit that this music requires. It can be said without any exaggeration that Corelli was the first world famous composer, yet despite his celebrity only a handful of his works have survived, with his violin sonatas occupying pride of place. The sonatas presented here come from the second half of the Op. 5 collection, with the relatively simple nature of these movements providing scope for all sorts of ornamentation and improvisation.