Hiro Kurosaki: Yes, that’s right, the recording is the fruit of a long process of gestation, years of pondering the project, and of course performing the works in recitals. After so many operatic collaborations, ending up with a project like this seemed natural to us. For purely recording-related issues the concerti grossi were produced before the sonatas. The result is certainly very special. Interestingly, I would say that it is the first time that all the musicians improvise the cadenzas. I proposed it during the rehearsals, and it would seem that the idea inspired the musicians, who livened up considerably and happily took part in this initiative.

To improvise at the very heart of an orchestral structure seems difficult. Isn’t that the case?

Of course, but it’s a question of organization and developing the musical sensibility of each person. We improvised to a scheme agreed among ourselves, and used personal intuition which played an important role. Furthermore it is also the only recording by Les Arts Florissants not to feature any singers!

And at last, the Sonatas.

Yes, playing them with William has really been a revelation. From a formal point of view the sonatas allow one to express and tell the story of many of the characteristics inherent in those heroic figures to which opera gives life. They reflect human passions and behaviour. The language was so familiar to us that for a moment we thought we were performing mini-operas.

As a violinist how do you regard these sonatas?

They undoubtedly show the influence of Corelli, particularly of his concertos. Handel very much admired the Italian maestro, whom he regarded as “the great violinist”. The Sonata in A is the most Corellian. The later ones have a less classical pattern in the sense that they have quite well marked structural breaks. For example, changes of mode from major to minor at illogical times that can only be explained in terms of the feelings of the posited personalities. Handel was a great psychologist and in this sense is not the usual Baroque composer. In Baroque operas the characters are usually presented in a rigid and little-evolved manner, restricted to crossing each other’s paths and creating interpersonal conflicts that at times are barely plausible. With Handel they evolve, and exercise a broader range of emotions. We can point out that the late sonatas recreate personalities that are “works in progress”.

You have also recorded all the Sonatas for Violin and Piano by Mozart, another opera composer.

Exactly. My education was as a modern violinist, so opera was far from my thoughts. I was a typical instrumental soloist. When I was very young I thought that I understood Mozart, but actually that has only happened in maturity. I believed that the Vienna and the Viennese knew how to play Mozart better than anyone else... I had a lot of problems. I used to prefer playing Brahms or Mendelssohn. But when I started playing on a period violin a new world opened before my eyes; it changed my outlook on many things and I began to understand the Salzburg maestro. His musical language has something of the Baroque, and if you try and play it as Classical, in the erroneous meaning that many give to that term, Mozart remains blurred. Together with Handel he is my favourite composer. They are both opera composers and this is also reflected in their instrumental treatment.