Critical notes on the concerti of Francesco Durante

Part I of a comprehensive work on the art of Francesco Durante: an analytical study of his concerti (nine concerti for strings and continuo plus one for harpsichord, strings, and continuo). Without renouncing the idiomatic achievements made by the leaders of the early 17th-c. Italian instrumental school, Durante admits procedures characteristic of strict counterpoint into concerto-writing. He has particular taste for very difficult and complex formal structures.