Who was Dario Castello? Some say he died of a plague that devastated Venice in 1630, others that he survived until well into the 1650s. One source lists him as born in 1610 and dead by 1620, which would make miraculous the two hefty volumes of sonatas he published – by the age of 10. Whatever we don’t know about Castello, Richard Egarr and instrumentalists from the Academy of Ancient Music show him to be a flagrant pusher of baroque boundaries, his music frenetic and uncompromising but sumptuous. He was a wind player and it shows in the tactile chamber writing: these are works that sound fun to play. Egarr is on harpsichord and chamber organ and his sense of drama is never shy; I was probably most seduced by sonatas 7-11, featuring the dulcian, an early version of the bassoon played here with great finesse and flourish by Benny Aghassi.
