World-premiere recording: Pietro Gnocchi was not only cathedral chapel master in the northern Italian city of Brescia, and indeed for over a half a century until his death at the advanced age of eighty-six, but also a priest, archeologist, geographer, and fluent in many languages. Apart from sacred vocal music, this impressive polymath also left behind several instrumental works: surprisingly, the present concertos for stringed instruments and basso continuo are heavily contrapuntal, much is inspired by the stilo antico.

Concertante elements do not come very strongly to the fore. In this way, Gnocchi achieves a very homogenous and personal interpretation of the “concerto grosso” genre.

The Main-Barockorchester Frankfurt presents here a world-premiere recording. The orchestra has always been acclaimed for its recordings of works from off the beaten path: the recordings on AEOLUS with the works of Fasch, Hertel, and Molter were each very well received by critics and audiences alike (for example, Fono Forum Star of the Month, etc.)