Concerto Grosso in B flat, Op.6, No.5

Although Corelli’s twelve Concerti Grossi, Op.6, were assembled in 1712 and first published in 1714 - a year after the composer’s death - they were probably written over a period of thirty years or more. Certainly, Georg Muffat reported hearing Corelli concertos in Rome in 1682 and it is more than likely that the famous “Christmas” Concerto (Op.6, No.8) corresponds at least in part to a Concerto di Natale Corelli is known to have written for Cardinal Ottoboni, one of his principal patrons, in 1690.

It is not likely, on the other hand, that when Corelli himself performed these concertos in the churches and chambers of Rome - all of them scored for a concertino of two violins and bass and a larger ensemble of strings - they were presented in the same form as they appear in the printed edition. The Roman concerto grosso at the end of the seventeenth century was characteristically much shorter than any of the twelve in Corelli’s Op.6, each of which was probably compiled from two or three different sources. Even so, it is scarcely helpful to describe the collection as “a museum or zoo” as though the various components of each work were arbitrarily put together: after all, it was Corelli rather than some academic curator who assembled them, and he was clearly concerned to choose movements or groups of movements which would not only hang together by means of their tonality but which would also form a new and interesting larger shape.

Concerto Grosso No.5 in B flat - which, like all the first eight in the set, the so-called “church” concertos, preserves the integrity of the concertino as a trio throughout - is particularly successful construction. The brilliant central Allegro section of the first movement, the modestly expressive Adagio (where the melodic interest descends to the bass line toward the end), and the close-knit fugal texture of the next Allegro balance each other perfectly. The Allegro last movement, which is approached by a Largo in G minor, was chosen as a finale presumably because, unlike the other movements, it is ternary in shape and, after diverging from the tonic in the middle section, presents a firmly conclusive recapitulation.

Gerald Larner