Giovanni Battista Sammartini: Concerto in C major for Cello, Strings and Continuo
Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto in C major for Cello, Strings and Continuo, RV 414
Giuseppe Tartini: Violin Sonata No. 7 in A minor (Adagio)
Giuseppe Tartini: Concerto in A major for Cello, Strings and Continuo
Leonardo Leo: Concerto No. 2 in D major for Cello, Strings and Continuo
Giuseppe Tartini: Violin Sonata No. 6 in E minor (Andante cantabile)

Montreal based cellist Elinor Frey, who displays a proclivity for music by composers on the outer fringes, ranging from obscure Baroque composers like Fiore and Colombi to ultra-modern names like Lefkowitz and Godin, here on her latest recording focuses her historically informed and erudite scrutiny on more central exemplars of the Baroque period. Along with Canadian period instrument ensemble Rosa Barocca and their artistic director Claude Lapalme, she strives to reappraise the significant part the Baroque violoncello, the slightly smaller antecedent to today's cello, played within the musical life of the 17th and 18th centuries.

By alternating throughout the program between a 1770 German made violoncello and a 2017 American cello, as well as using an underhand bow technique apparently common at the time, she well exemplifies the different, as well as similar, methods of music-making in practice by composers of the day, including some of Giuseppe Tartini's rather odd idiosyncrasies for the time.

Along with Rosa Barocca's committed and dynamic playing, Elinor Frey's period sensitive and highly expressive interpretations teleport the spirit of a baroque ensemble (minus the powdered wigs of course) into your living room. As I had mentioned previously in a review of her recording of the music of Giuseppe Clemente Dall'Abaco, the audio recording itself is close and bright, and perfectly suited to this type of music.