Francesco Maria Veracini

L'Arte dell'Arco now at last has recorded more instrumental works by the composer Francesco Veracini for cpo. The first release met with a unanimously enthusiastic response: »Here everything fits perfectly; here instrumentalists perform with passion; here a very great ensemble is revealed. The team effort is fascinating; here musicians, friends, and kindred spirits are at work. CD of the Month« (Toccata 1/10). The goal of this project is to record Veracinis complete overtures and violin concertos and to combine them with a selection of his most interesting sonatas from the collection without opus number (1716) and his Opus 1 (1721). When these three groups of works are juxtaposed, Veracinis various stylistic characters come into even clearer view.

Francesco Maria Veracini (1690-1768) is today best known as an eccentric violin virtuoso and composer of instrumental music, but he has also successfully operated as an opera composer during his time in London. His first opera Adriano in Siria was created in 1735 for the London Opera of Nobility, the rival company to Handel's opera troupe. The company had only a few years earlier (including the soprano castrato Senesino and Francesca Cuzzoni) poached all singing stars from Handel. Even worse: since 1734, it could also score with the castrato legend Farinelli. Veracini's Adriano in Siria is, in every respect, a spectacular and fascinating opera. The recording of Fabio Biondi and an appropriate illustrious singers ensemble is based on a highly successful concert performance series of the work at the Vienna Konzerthaus in 2013, which made alive again the spectacular opera event of 1735.

He performances by the Locatelli Trio respond with spontaneity and expressive warmth to the wide-ranging effects, sometimes playful, at others sober and idiosyncratic of these fascinating pieces. Violinist Elizabeth Wallfisch articulates Veracini's melodic line with clarity and communicative charm …

After decades during which the unaccompanied violin sonatas and partitas of Bach stood alone, regarded by all but specialists as rather freakish musical occurrences, recent years have seen a growth of interest in the virtuoso violin repertory of the Baroque. Composers like Biber, Pisendel, and Tartini have all shown up with increasing frequency on concert programs and recordings.

Two particularly spectacular personalities of the Baroque period, which was not short of exciting figures: Antonio Veracini, violin virtuoso, teacher and composer in Florence. Although he was a highly respected musician and teacher in his own time, only few of his works have survived. His nephew Francesco Maria, to whom he taught violin and composition, was a completely different type.

More than two centuries before John Lennon favorably compared the Beatles' popularity to that of Jesus, Italian violin virtuoso Francesco Maria Veracini confidently remarked that there was only one God, and only one Veracini. He was one of the first stars of the violin, younger than Corelli, roughly contemporary with Vivaldi and Tartini, who is better known only because of the satanic verses he wrote for the instrument.

Italian historical-performance specialist violinist Frederico Guglielmo has led several different ensembles and offered various interpretive styles, as violinist and as conductor, in his approach to the violin music of the Baroque in Italy and beyond. His take on Handel's Water Music is brisk and rhythmic, but this collection of orchestral and solo violin music by the virtuoso Francesco Maria Veracini, whom the historian Charles Burney described as "capo pazzo," or crazy in the head, is a good deal quieter and more circumspect, with a small, violin-heavy ensemble that allows the wind parts to show through in the two orchestral overtures included.

A celebration of instrumental Baroque splendour! This set present an anthology of Italian Baroque composers, featuring their instrumental output. Obviously the famous composers have their fair share: Vivaldi, Albinoni, Locatelli, Corelli, but also lesser known composers are featured: Barsanti, Bassani, Veracini, Nardini, Stradella, Vitali, Mancini, Platti, Legrenze and many more, over 30 composers! Performances by leading ensembles specialized in the Historically Informed Performance Practice: L'Arte dell'Arco/Federico Guglielmo, Ensemble Cordia/Stefano Veggetti, Violini Capricciosi/Igor Ruhadze, MusicaAmphion/Pieter Jan Belder and many more. A treasure trove of solo concertos, concerti grossi, sinfonias, overtures, trio sonatas and solo sonatas from the Golden Era of the Italian Baroque, era of joy, passion and brilliance!

Despite his rather extensive output (especially in the realm of violin sonatas), composer Francesco Maria Veracini is likely unknown to most. His life history and personal writing read something like that of a modern-day groupie. Veracini was enamored with the works of Corelli and held the composer's works up with the highest possible esteem. It does not come as a surprise, then, that one of his most significant works would be based entirely on the works of Corelli. The Dissertazioni sopra l'Opera Quinta del Corelli is an entire set of expansions and elaborations of Corelli's Op. 5.