Thomas Georgi, viola d’amore; Lucas Harris, archlute & baroque guitar; Mime Yamahiro Brinkmann, violoncello; *Emma Kirkby, soprano

• This disc concludes the journey by Thomas Georgi through the works for viola d’amore by Attilio Ariosti. The 79 movements, falling into groups and forming 21 ‘sonatas’, stem from two different sources – a ‘Collection of Lessons for the Viol d‘Amour’ published in London in 1724, and a manuscript copy made by the Swedish composer Johan Helmich Roman during his student years in London in the late 1710s.

• The present programme also includes a final flourish: a guest appearance by Emma Kirkby in Pur alfin gentil viola, a cantata for solo voice and viola d‘amore. Here the humble and constant violet prevails over the proud and haughty rose. To Georgi, and possibly to Ariosti himself, the violet by association comes to represent the viola d’amore, and all the greater is the joy as the cantata text proclaims it ‘Regina del Prato’ – Queen of the Meadow!