Salut! Baroque presents Corelli's Magic

The 1710 publication of Arcangelo Corelli’s Opus 5 Violin sonatas by the publisher Estienne Roger included the adagio movements in both the original and a version with ornaments “as [Corelli] plays them”.

Amongst those who were dubious about this bold claim was Roger North who commented:

“Some presumer hath published [ornaments in…] Corelly's solos. ... Upon the bare view of the print any one would wonder how so much vermin could creep into the work of such a master”.

Yet even without verification, as a publisher’s marketing pitch, it was gold! The sonatas were republished dozens of times over the following century, and Quantz suggested in 1752 that “…cadenzas first came into use after the time Corelli published his twelve solos for the violin”.