Italian Baroque Instrumental Music

their pitch must have been close to the modern standard a 440 Hz. I am delighted to report, therefore, that this higher pitch is adopted in La Serenissima’s recital The rise of the North Italian violin concerto, vol.3 (Avie av 2154, rec 2008, 78 Ј )—even if, as the programme booklet admits, it is not what Locatelli would have expected in Amsterdam. For most of the music the violins are multi- plied three or four apiece, which raises another general question of performance practice: when are the accompa- nying ‘ ripieno’ parts in concertos intended for single players and when is it legitimate to use more? The solu- Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/em/article/37/4/689/493954 by guest on 27 September 2021 tions adopted by La Serenissima seem perfectly accept- able, although it is hard to see how there could have been more than two to a part in Vivaldi’s rv 562a at the celebra- tory concert in Amsterdam in 1738, given that there is only one copy of each part-book in the set used on that occasion. Le Cène’s 1735 publication of Locatelli’s op.4 includes separate part-books for two solo violins and two ripieno violins, and the instruction ‘ un Solo Violino ’ for ripieno violin 1 at one point in no.9 implies that the part is expected to be doubled elsewhere. However, in the concerto for four violins (op. 4 no. 12) the ripieno violin parts must be taken by single players — as is done on this recording — since they have to share part-books with solo violins 3 and 4 respectively (the parts are printed on fac- ing pages, piano-duet fashion). R i c h a r d M a u n d e r As well as the ‘ Baroque ’ pieces, this CD includes a ‘Concerto à più stromenti ’ by G. B. Sammartini of Milan Italian Baroque instrumental with solo parts for two oboes and two violins. It probably dates from around 1750, and it has some claim to be the music earliest example of the genre now known — with little his- torical justification — as the ‘ Sinfonia Concertante’. Sam- These six new recordings raise several points of perfor- martini’s concerto inhabits a completely different world mance practice where (with some honourable exceptions) from that of Vivaldi and Locatelli: one feels that the ‘ Clas- ‘ period ’ groups have not always kept up with the latest sical age ’ has suddenly arrived, and it is but a short step findings of scholarship. Of course, some compromises are to other such pieces by J. C. Bach or even Mozart. inevitable when commercial pressures restrict prepara- La Serenissima’s performances are as unfailingly excellent tion time and ensembles perform a considerably wider as the music they play. I particularly enjoyed the virtuoso range of repertory than did their 17th- or 18th-century horns— playing bells-up — in two festive Vivaldi pieces, counterparts. Nevertheless I cannot help feeling that HIP and the rich string sound in Locatelli’s op.4 nos.11 and 12. performances (to use the fashionable acronym) are some- And special praise for director Adrian Chandler’s refined times not as Historically Informed as they ought to be. violin playing, from the delicate tenderness in the beauti- One particular issue is that of pitch standards, where ful slow movement of Tartini’s d 117 to the pyrotechnics there is ample evidence to show that considerable differ- required in this and several other concertos. ences existed between those used at various times and places All the other recordings in this batch use the standard during the Baroque period (for a comprehensive account, ‘ Baroque pitch ’ a 415 Hz. But the Venetian ensemble see Bruce Haynes’s 2002 A history of performing pitch ). music (Capriccio 67 199, rec 2006, 69 Ј ) played by the So why do ‘ Baroque ’ groups almost invariably play at Accademia per Musica Roma under Christoph Timpe a 415 Hz? It seems particularly perverse to do so in the dates from the mid-17th century, when instrumental pitch music of Venetians such as Albinoni and Vivaldi, when in Venice was probably a whole tone higher at around early music november 2009 689 a 465 Hz. Apart from this solecism, however, the perfor- parini piece is in the French style; and Hasse’s Cleofide mances are first rate. There is a real sense of commitment overture is astonishingly modern-sounding for an opera to the music, the ensemble is excellent, and the string written for Dresden in 1731. sound is very beautiful. It is good to hear such an interest- Unfortunately the recording is marred by one of the ing selection of pieces, not least the two sonatas and a worst programme booklets I have come across recently. canzona by Massimiliano Neri (1623 – 73), who was evi- The standard of proof-reading is inexcusably poor: the dently a composer of considerable stature and would be blunder about Albinoni’s op.5 no.4 occurs twice, as does much better known if his music had survived intact. No the regrettably common mistranslation of ‘ B-dur ’ as ‘ B complete original source now exists for either of his two major ’ (when will foreign record companies employ Eng- sets of sonatas; the pieces recorded here were published in lish translators with a rudimentary knowledge of music?). 1874 and 1912, but it is not clear whether they were still The printed timings for nearly all the Handel pieces are Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/em/article/37/4/689/493954 by guest on 27 September 2021 complete then or whether the editors supplied the miss- wrong. Track 1 lasts nearly 4 minutes, not the stated 1 Ј 15 ; ing parts. The three sumptuously scored Bertali sonatas track 2 is over 3½ minutes, not 2 Ј 35 ; and so on (and I are full of extravagant gestures and intensely expressive certainly cannot believe that track 5 lasts for nearly 74 moments — although a pedant might wonder what music minutes!). More seriously, the booklet contains some by a Viennese imperial Kapellmeister is doing in a recital pretty dubious scholarship. Albinoni’s op.5, published in of Venetian music, even granted that his birthplace 1707, can hardly have been modelled ‘ on the work of his (Verona) is only about 100 km from Venice. For good admired friend [Vivaldi] ’ : Albinoni should be given his measure, we are given all six sonatas of Legrenzi’s third due as the first native Venetian to publish concertos, over set of op.10 sonatas, published in 1673. The contrast a decade before Vivaldi did so. And the essay about ‘ the between this quirky, angular, sometimes almost Purcel- difference between the alto and tenor violas ’ is sheer non- lian music and the works that Albinoni began to compose sense. It is true that Albinoni labels his two viola parts about 20 years later could hardly be more extreme. ‘ Alto Viola ’ and ‘ Tenore Viola’, but that is simply a mat- Two of Albinoni’s pieces, an unpublished Sinfonia in ter of notational convenience with no implications about G minor and the Concerto in G, op.5 no.4 (not op.4 no.5 the relative size of the instruments. The unattributed as the programme booklet has it) are included in I Vir- illustration captioned ‘ The family of the viols ’ (sic ) is in tuosi delle Muse’s Viaggio a Venezia (Divox cdx – 70602, fact Plate XXI in vol.2 of Praetorius’s Syntagma musicum rec 2006, 72 Ј ), along with music by Handel, Porpora, Cal- (1619), which shows members of the violin family, not dara, Benedetto Marcello, Gasparini and Hasse. The band viols. It is scarcely relevant to the Venice of nearly a cen- is based on a string section of 4/3/2/1/1, which is probably tury later, and in any case it provides no evidence what- about right for the Venetian opera overtures except for ever in support of the ‘ alto and tenor violas ’ notion, since the questionable inclusion of a double bass. An early 18th- the scale drawing includes only one size of ‘ Tenor-Geig ’ century engraving of the Teatro S. Giovanni Grisostomo between the ‘ Rechte Discant-Geig ’ (violin) and the ‘ Bas- (where the première of Handel’s Agrippina took place in Geig de bracio ’ (bass violin). 1709) shows about a dozen musicians including a harpsi- Il Gardellino do at least use single violins in their selec- chord and a theorbo, but no double bass; indeed, it is tion of Italian Baroque concertos (Eufoda 1371, issued hard to find an unequivocal reference to that instrument 2007, 66 Ј ), but I would again question the automatic inclu- in Venice at this time. The same band is used for the Albi- sion of a double bass throughout. The effect in a one-to-a- noni concerto and, inexplicably, for two of Porpora’s part string group is to make the bass-line, especially in unjustly neglected trio sonatas, whose title-page states quick movements, sound elephantine. There is no histori- unequivocally that they are for ‘ tre istromenti’. As for cal justification for this practice, and in the rare cases Albinoni, it is as inappropriate to double the violins in his where the composer calls for a 16 ' instrument it doubles op.5 as it would be in, say, Brandenburg 3: the music is the bass-line only in the tuttis. Yes, I know that the ' Basso simply not designed for ‘ orchestral ’ performance. Never- Continuo ’ part in Albinoni’s op.9 (nos.2 and 6 recorded theless I Virtuosi delle Muse play with excellent ensemble here) is marked ‘ Senza Cembalo e il Violone Pizzigato ’ for and plenty of spirit, and they are also capable of great the slow movement of no.7 (a violin concerto), but the refinement.

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