It was the year 1979, and at the CIMA (Centro Italiano di Musica Antica, in Rome), two young oboists, Alfredo Bernardini, already studying at the Conservatory of The Hague, and Paolo Pollastri (who had recently acquired a baroque oboe), performed two Trio Sonatas by Giovanni Battista Cirri. The setting for the performance was the Waldensian Church of Piazza Cavour, which still hosts the Concerts of CIMA, directed today, as then, by Sergio Siminovich! Forty-five years later, they return to perform once again the Trio Sonatas of this cellist from Forlì, in the tricentenary of his birth, with the same enthusiasm as their debut! Cirri was a virtuoso cellist and ordained priest, initiated into the study of music by his brother Ignazio, and later continuing under the guidance of Father Martini in Bologna. During that period, he played at the Music Chapel of San Petronio, as well as in Naples and Florence, gaining fame as a virtuoso even in England and France.
