Tartini Daskalakis

According to the thoroughly credible words of his contemporaries, Johannes Bernardus van Bree, the long-time musical director of the Felix Meritis Society of Amsterdam, was not only an extremely talented violinist and composer. He was also, to the delight of those around him, a very pleasant, flexible character who strove all his life to please others. This made him shy away from tormenting the conservative capital of the Netherlands with avant-garde provocations. However, it did not stop him from skilfully and sensitively composing unusually appealing works in the conventional vocabulary of the early Romantic years. His highly dramatic overture in the "unfinished" key of B Minor and his original Symphonic Fantasy, which is a mere stone's throw away from Robert Schumann, are particularly surprising.

According to the thoroughly credible words of his contemporaries, Johannes Bernardus van Bree, the long-time musical director of the Felix Meritis Society of Amsterdam, was not only an extremely talented violinist and composer. He was also, to the delight of those around him, a very pleasant, flexible character who strove all his life to please others. This made him shy away from tormenting the conservative capital of the Netherlands with avant-garde provocations. However, it did not stop him from skilfully and sensitively composing unusually appealing works in the conventional vocabulary of the early Romantic years. His highly dramatic overture in the "unfinished" key of B Minor and his original Symphonic Fantasy, which is a mere stone's throw away from Robert Schumann, are particularly surprising.

The English, historical-instrument, Baroque ensemble La Serenissima (the term was a nickname for the city of Venice) has specialized in somewhat scholarly recordings that nevertheless retain considerable general appeal, and the group does it again with this release. The program offers some lesser-known composers, and some lesser-known pieces by famous composers like the tiny and fascinating Concerto alla rustica for two oboes, bassoon, strings, and continuo, RV 151. What ties the program together formally is that it covers a range of Italian cities that were becoming cultural centers as they declined in political power: not only Venice (Vivaldi, Albinoni, Caldara), but also Padua (Tartini), Bologna (Torelli), and Rome (Corelli). There are several works by composers known only for one or two big hits, and these are especially rewarding. Sample the opening movement of Tartini's Violin Concerto E major, DS 51, with its unusual phrase construction and daringly chromatic cadenza passage: it has the exotic quality for which Tartini became famous, but it does not rely on sheer virtuosity. That work is played by leader Adrian Chandler himself, but he also chooses pieces for a large variety of other solo instruments: the Italian Baroque was about more than the violin. Each work on the album has something to recommend it, and collectively the performances may make up the best album of 2017 whose booklet includes footnotes.

To publish this complete edition of Giuseppe Tartini’s Violin Concertos is not only a source of pride for a record label like Dynamic, which in its 36 years of activity has built a considerable catalogue of violin music. This edition is an artistic and historical document of indisputable musicological importance for anyone wishing to have a philologically reliable testimony of this aspect of 18th-century Italian instrumental music, valuable, therefore, for more than the mere dimension of listening.

In this, the first disc of a mammoth undertaking, L'Arte dell'Arco set out in 1996 to record all of the violin concertos of Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770). Published between 1728 and 1732, the two books of Op.1 were originally thought to have been composed just a few years before. However, recent research has suggested that his earliest work, the Concerto in C Major, D.2 which is not on this recording, may have been written as early as 1714, moving the beginning of Tartini's fertile productivity back several years. His prodigious output spans the late Baroque to the Classical era, and his music reflects elements of both.

Anyone can set out to perform and record a set of compositions by a given composer. But to truly take the time to bring listeners into the world of both composer and performer, and to engage the listener with as many senses as possible, makes for a truly exceptional recording. Such is the case with this album of Tartini's Sonatas for Solo Violin with violinist Chiara Banchini and soprano Patrizia Bovi. Tartini made a habit of writing excerpts from poetry in the margins of his scores – works that he presumably read before writing to gain inspiration.