Hyperion Records

Nicola Matteis was an Italian who worked in northern Europe: he arrived in London from his native Naples in the 1670s, where he made a fortune as a violinist and guitarist from performing, teaching and selling copies of his compositions. It is not easy to reconstruct the original form of his concerto, for it survives only in a curious arrangement made to fit the format of his violin books. The third trumpet part, for instance, cannot be played on the natural instrument and has been given here to the trombone; I have also reconstructed the lost string parts. The original piece is a rambling suite of seven movements, but the first three (performed here) make a satisfactory short work on their own.

from notes by Peter Holman © 1988