Francesco Maria Veracini (1690-1768) Sonatas
John Holloway, Jaap ter Linden, Lars Ulrik Mortensen
John Holloway : Violin
Jaap ter Linden : Violoncello
Lars Urlik Mortensen : Harpsichord
Recorded September 2003
Reviews :
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MusicWeb
fanfare magazine
All Music Guide : James Manheim
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. Here is more high-quality Baroque violin music that's plenty enjoyable for anyone to hear. The Italian violinist and composer Francesco Maria Veracini (1690-1768) worked in Italy, Germany, and England, competing with Handel and absorbing the music of both Corelli and Vivaldi. On the evidence of the music for violin and continuo presented on this disc, he was a paradoxical musical personality: a mercurial and exciting player and thinker who nevertheless had a preference for conservative forms. The four sonatas included here date from between 1716 and about 1760. They fall into the sonata da chiesa (slow-fast-slow-fast) and sonata da camera (a sequence of dance movements, often introduced by an overture) patterns of Corelli and his epoch, with little of the innovative large-scale architecture that Vivaldi developed. Into these decades-old molds, however, Veracini poured sparkling and innovative music. This is not extreme virtuoso violin writing like that of Bach or Biber, but instead music with vivid folk-like effects and passagework that's well enough wrought that a lyrical spirit often effervesces. The primary audience for this rather obscure music may be violinists in search of new and exciting recital material. They'll find it in abundance here, and lovers of the violin and the High Baroque should also sample this disc. Violinist John Holloway does a fine job matching the sound of his Baroque violin to the music at hand; only those with perfect pitch will even stop to notice that they're listening to a historically authentic instrument. ECM's sound design, with the Propstei St. Gerold (a provost's house in the Austrian countryside) as a setting, is superior.
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