Giuliano Bach

In tandem with the “Vivaldian ardour” (International Record Review) of conductor-harpsichordist Andrea Marcon and his Venice Baroque Orchestra, violinist Giuliano Carmignola – “a wonderfully accomplished player” (Gramophone) – has raised the bar on recordings of the Venetian Baroque master. This 7-CD set contains many of Vivaldi’s most engaging concertos, enlivened with playing “full of character, energy and sensibility” (BBC Music Magazine) – including “a performance of the Four Seasons as fine as any” (ClassicsToday). It also features Carmignola and Marcon presenting the complete Bach Violin and Harpsichord Sonatas

An eminent interpreter of Vivaldi, Giuliano Carmignola has always had a great affinity with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, as can be heard in his landmark recordings of the Violin Sonatas with Andrea Marcon (2002), the Violin Concertos with Concerto Köln (2014, Diapason d'or), and the Sonatas & Partitas (2018), which Gramophone judged to be "a first-rate choice among the recordings of these works on period instruments, despite the competition”. Carmignola’s latest project took shape during the Covid lockdowns of 2020 and offers a new and sometimes experimental reading of Bach’s Suites à Violoncello Solo senza Basso, in which he highlights new details and exalts the choreatic character and the brilliance of many of the suites’ movements.

In November 2004 a new name caused listeners to prick up their ears on the international orchestral scene: under Claudio Abbado’s artistic guidance the Orchestra Mozart came into being. It combines both young instrumentalists on the threshold of a first-rate career as well as eminent chamber musicians such as Danusha Waskiewicz, Alois Posch, Jacques Zoon, Michaela Petri, Ottavio Dantone, Mario Brunello, Alessio Allegrini, Jonathan Williams and Reinhold Friedrich. As with his famous Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Abbado hand-picked an ensemble to his liking, this time one of early- and Baroque-music specialists, all masters in their field.

Bach’s sonatas and partitas for solo violin are pinnacles of the repertoire—beautiful, mysterious works that test a violinist’s technical and musical skills to their limits. It’s music that’s perfectly suited to Giuliano Carmignola, one of today’s great Baroque performers. His playing has a beguiling rhythmic freedom that highlights the music’s spontaneity and an expressiveness that penetrates its soul. The Presto from the Sonata No. 1, one of Bach’s most exhilarating movements, is a thrilling ride, while the tender Sarabande from Partita No. 1 sings and sighs. And the Chaconne from the second partita, an astonishing 14-minute set of 32 variations, emerges glorious, noble, and majestic—a miracle of Baroque performance.

This release of Bach's well-explored violin concertos (plus a couple of arranged keyboard concertos) by Italian violinist Giuliano Carmignola delivers truth in advertising on its back cover: the violinist, playing a 1739 Guidantus and leading the historical-instrument ensemble Concerto Köln, "seems to cast fresh light on these much-loved masterpieces by imbuing them with all the joyfulness of his Venetian sound."

Bach's Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord hardly lack for excellent recorded versions in the period instrument department, including these sensitive and musicianly collaborations between Giuliano Carmignola and Andrea Marcon. Tempos rarely move faster than the music can sing, and cultivated vocalism characterizes Carmignola's sweet, silvery timbre, which differs from Andrew Manze's grittier approach. Indeed, you hardly notice Carmignola's bow arm at all in the way his long, sustained notes seem to materialize from within the harpsichord. A genuine give and take prevails as the musicians effortlessly adjust to each other's foreground and background roles.

Claudio Abbado isn't a name one associates with early music, in light of his impressive career conducting the masterworks of the Romantic and modern eras. Indeed, he didn't conduct any music by J.S. Bach with the Berlin Philharmonic until as late as 1994. Yet when he's leading the talented Orchestra Mozart of Bologna in Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, his ease with the music and his players is obvious, and the performances have almost as much Baroque style as many versions by period ensembles of greater longevity. Abbado led this ensemble in all six Brandenburgs in 2007 at the Teatro Municipale Romolo Valli in Reggio Emilio, and the live performances were recorded by Deutsche Grammophon with close attention to details, as befits chamber music.