Attilio Ariosti (1666-1729): Viola d’amore Sonata in d minor

Richard Fleischman, viola d’amore and Aaron Merritt, cello perform Attilio Ariosit’s Sonata no. 18 in d minor. Recorded April 18, 2016 Andante/Allegro/Largo/Allegro Attilio Ariosti (1666-1729) was an Italian composer in the Baroque style, born in Bologna. He produced more than 30 operas and oratorios, numerous cantatas and instrumental works. Ariosti was born into the middle class. He became a monk in 1688 at age 22, but he soon obtained permission to leave the order and become a composer in the court of the Duke of Mantua.. He resided in Berlin as the court composer from 1697- 1703. After success in opera in Venice, by 1716 he achieved enormous success in Paris and London. In London, he shared with Handel and Bononcini the directorship of the Royal Academy of Music, and he played the viola d’amore in an entr’acte in Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula. In 1724 he published a Collection of Cantatas, and Lessons for the Viola d’Amour, which he sold by subscription. This publication may have been the most successful sale