You may not yet have heard of Riccardo Minasi and there’s a pretty good chance you won’t have heard of most of the composers on this disc. If you are the slightest bit interested in the Baroque fiddle, however, you will be wanting to make all their acquaintances at the earliest opportunity, because this examination of the large but shapely footprint left by Corelli’s Op 5 violin sonatas is a treat both for its playing and for its music. Starting with Corelli’s Ninth Sonata in the ornament-encrusted version handed down by Geminiani, it continues with sonatas by Giovanni Stefano Carbonelli (noble and strong-boned), Giovanni Mossi (dark and moody, relieved by flashes of violinistic brilliance), Gasparo Visconti (the earliest after Corelli’s sonatas and the most like them in graceful style), Prospero Castrucci (short and punchy) and Locatelli (the most modern-sounding and outgoing, with a role for the cello almost equal to that of the violin), and finishes with a skittish unaccompanied Giga by Antonio Maria Montanari. Each of these works has its own character but each too bears recognisable signs of Corellian elegance and formal coherence.

That four of them are here recorded for the first time puts us in Minasi’s debt even before we hear him touch his violin. When he does, it is with a freewheeling eloquence and vigour that confirms what hitherto seems to have been a bit of a well-kept secret: that he is one of the most exciting and engaging Baroque violinists in the business. Bold, expressive and welcoming of vibrato, his playing may strike some as a little fidgety, but no one could deny its mercurial brilliance or its clean-lined and vibrant singing tone. With a sweetly spacious acoustic that yet allows the excellent continuo team focus and substance, and an informative booklet-note, this is top-league stuff.