Giuseppe Tartini on the viola da gamba

In the Italy of the Age of Enlightenment, especially in Padua, where Giuseppe Tartini the famous composer and violinist from the Istrian (today: Slovenian) Piran had devoted his life to practice as well as to musical theory and didactics - at that time the viola da gamba, after having experienced an undisputed heyday in the Renaissance and early Baroque, gradually disappeared from instrumental ensembles.  In the present recording, sonatas and concertos for this instrument can be heard, and all the notes written by the composer have been preserved unchanged. At the same time, this opens up a way to expand the repertoire for the viola da gamba - an instrument quite capable of tackling the virtuosic, coloristic and espressive elements usually reserved for the violin.