Ludovico Roncalli (1654-1713) was born into an aristocratic family in Bergamo, Italy. He studied law and later became a priest. For his musical education he went to Rome, where he enjoyed the patronage of Cardinal Panfilio, the dedicatee of his Capricci Armonici. This new recording contains Roncalli’s complete Capricci Armonici. The book includes nine sonate or suites, one in each of eight tuoni or modes and one in the tuono trasportato, following the classification system in use at the time. Each suite opens with a free-style preludio and an allemanda followed by other late seventeenth-century dance forms such as the corrente, sarabanda, giga, minuetto and gavotta. Each successive movement is based on themes from the opening allemanda which gives each suite an overall sense of unity. In these works, Roncalli is clearly influenced by Bartolotti and De Visée. His exquisite melodic lines and elegant counterpoint are seamlessly combined with the strummed five-part chords which were still a defining feature of guitar music at the time. He makes imaginative use of the characteristic guitaristic devices such as arpeggii and campanelle – bell-like effects created by playing each note of a scale passage on different courses – and elaborate ornamentation. Beautifully played by Austrian guitarist Bernhard Hoffstötter, whose previous recordings for Brilliant Classics (Francois Campion (95276) and The Baroque Lute in Vienna (95087)) received excellent reviews. Gramophone about his Weiss recording: "some of the most sympathetic and beautiful Weiss-playing yet committed to disc".