When his patron Pamphili moved to Bologna in 1690, Corelli was taken up by the young Cardinal Ottoboni and took part in the famous academies held in the Ottoboni Palace every Monday evening. To Ottoboni was dedicated another set of
Sonate da camera (Op 4, 1694). (It says something for the temporal aspiration of the Princes of the Church in Rome at that time that Corelli’s church sonatas all had secular dedicatees while the Cardinals seem to have preferred chamber sonatas.) Op 4 No 3 opens with a
Preludio built over a sturdy bass line. This is followed by three dances which are as unlike their French counterparts (courante, sarabande and gavotte) as one could wish.
from notes by Tim Crawford © 1987
