VIVALDI: L'estro Armonico - Fabio Biondi, Europa Galante (2 CDs)

Vivaldi's Op. 3 has been called the most influential collection of instrumental works to appear during the eighteenth century. This corpus made an enormous impression on European musical taste-even on Bach who transcribed six of them-and established the three-movement solo concerto as the norm. This 1998 recording by one of the most skilled period-instrument ensembles, Europa Galante, led by Fabio Biondi, remains a milestone reference recording.