FRANCESCO MANCINI Solos for a Flute Gwyn Roberts recorder • flauto traverso CHANDOS early music Dedication of the first edition of ‘XII Solos for a Flute’ Francesco Mancini (1672 – 1737) Solos for a Flute with a Thorough Bass for the Harpsichord or for the Bass Violin (1724) Sonata VI 8:17 in B flat major • in B-Dur • en si bémol majeur alto recorder, theorbo, harpsichord, and cello 1 Largo 2:01 2 Allegro 2:23 3 Largo 2:07 4 Allegro 1:37 Sonata IV 8:40 in A minor • in a-Moll • en la mineur alto recorder, archlute, and cello 5 Spiritoso – Largo 2:01 6 Allegro 2:35 7 Largo 2:07 8 Allegro spiccato 1:48 3 Sonata X 8:05 in B minor • in h-Moll • en si mineur voice flute and harpsichord 9 Largo 1:54 10 Allegro 2:19 11 Largo 2:01 12 Allegro 1:43 Sonata XII 8:29 in G major • in G-Dur • en sol majeur flauto traverso, theorbo, harpsichord, and cello 13 Allegro – Largo 2:09 14 Allegro 2:56 15 Andante 1:53 16 Allegro 1:23 4 Sonata XI 9:37 in G minor • in g-Moll • en sol mineur alto recorder, theorbo, and organ 17 Un poco andante 2:42 18 Allegro 2:07 19 Largo 2:22 20 Allegro 2:18 Sonata I 8:49 in D minor • in d-Moll • en ré mineur alto recorder and archlute 21 Amoroso 2:03 22 Allegro 2:15 23 Largo 2:04 24 Allegro 2:18 5 Sonata II 8:16 in E minor • in e-Moll • en mi mineur flauto traverso, harpsichord, and cello 25 Andante 1:29 26 Allegro 2:29 27 Largo 1:45 28 Allegro 2:25 Sonata V 7:31 in D major • in D-Dur • en ré majeur voice flute, guitar, harpsichord, and cello 29 Allegro – Largo 1:59 30 Allegro 2:16 31 Largo 1:33 32 Allegro 1:35 TT 68:01 Tempesta di Mare Chamber Players Gwyn Roberts alto recorder • voice flute • flauto traverso Richard Stone archlute • theorbo • guitar Adam Pearl harpsichord • organ Lisa Terry cello 6 Sonata IV: signature fast-slow bipartite first movement Francesco Mancini: Solos for a Flute with a Thorough Bass for the Harpsichord or for the Bass Violin The present sonatas, composed by me The hopes expressed by Francesco Mancini for the Lovers of Harmony, cannot come (1672 – 1737) in the opening dedication to light other than under the gracious of his XII Solos for a Violin or Flute did auspices of Your Illustrious Lordship, little to conceal what were probably his real with the special intention to entertain intentions, as the wish of the composer was your spirit and withdraw you from not only that of ‘making [himself] known to the trying duties of private and public the public’, but most likely that of finding a affairs: Since it already pleased You to stable and remunerative position in England approve my compositions in Naples. in which to spend the last years of his life. Therefore, I dedicate them with singular The collection was indeed dedicated to ‘the obliged deference to Your very Noble Ho. John Fleetwood, Esq: Consul Gen. for Genius which is always directed toward the Kingdom of Naples’. Fleetwood, possibly supporting the Scholars of Fine Arts: an amateur recorder player himself, had just And, confident that You will forgive my moved back to his residence in Surrey in bluntness, I hope that You will deign 1722, after spending several years in Naples to protect them in London too, where, as a keen patron of the arts. Neapolitan from their publication, I do not aspire chronicles relate musical gatherings organised more vividly to any other Glory than by Fleetwood in his palace, and, as Mancini’s that of making myself known to the dedication makes clear, the British consul public.1 had certainly heard and supported Mancini’s 1 Le presenti Sonate da me composte per gli Amatori dedico con singolare riconoscente ossequio al di lei dell’Harmonia, non devono uscir alla Luce, che sotto Nobilissimo Genio, ch’è sempre volto a favorire Li studiosi gli auspicij gratiosi di V.S.Ill.ma per recreare specialmente d’ogni bell’Arte: e confidando, che mi condonerà L’ardire; L’animo suo nel sottrarsi dalle cure noiose de’privati, spero, che degnerà di protegerle ancora in Londra; ove in e publici affari: poiché si compiacqu’Ella già in Napoli publicandole, altra gloria più vivamente non bramo, che d’approvare i miei Componimenti. Queste per tanto io quella di farmi conoscere. 8 music while in Naples. A few years earlier, in turn of the year for when his predecessor, the 1711, the renowned English virtuoso Robert celebrated Alessandro Scarlatti (1660 – 1725), Valentine had already dedicated to Fleetwood made his return to Naples in 1708 after a his collection of recorder sonatas, Op. 3. It long absence, Mancini had to step down and was probably thanks to the intercession of be content with the subordinate position of Fleetwood that Mancini was able to see his vice-maestro. Solos published in London in 1724. A year It is therefore not surprising that the later, however, his swerving career would take Neapolitan composer was trying to further one final turn and put an end to potential his career through the intervention of John plans which the composer might have had of Fleetwood and the publication of his Solos. In leaving his hometown. October 1725, however, the sudden death of Born in Naples on 16 January 1672, Scarlatti at last gave Mancini the opportunity Francesco Mancini entered the Conservatory of realising his ambitions, as he finally became of the Pietà dei Turchini in 1688. There head of the Royal Chapel – and a month later he trained as an organist and composer the death of Fleetwood probably persuaded under the celebrated Francesco Provenzale the composer to set aside his plans to leave for (1624 – 1704). He started his career at the age England. Indeed, Mancini enjoyed ten more of twenty-four with the first of a long series of years of productivity in Naples before being theatrical productions that would make him struck by an apoplectic attack and dying in one of the most prominent contributors to the 1737. consolidation and fame of Neapolitan opera The publication of the collection ofSolos is in the eighteenth century. a significant attestation both of the increasing In 1704 Mancini was hired by the Viceroy presence and importance of wind music in of Naples as first organist of the Royal Naples and of the circulation and success of Chapel. Three years later, however, when the Italian music in London. Austrian forces conquered the city, Mancini When compared to the vast production was ready to celebrate the arrival of the new of sacred and operatic music, instrumental rulers with a Te Deum and his loyalty was music in Naples in the eighteenth century rewarded with the position of maestro di remained often confined to a subordinate cappella. Yet, his glory lasted only through the role, both in terms of social prestige and 9 economic opportunities. In the first decades testimony of the rising importance of the of the century, however, we find indications flute is also to be found in a truly remarkable that new attention is being paid, in particular, manuscript collection, dated precisely to the role of wind instruments. The history 1725, which includes twenty-four concerti of the diffusion of the flute in Italy in the for flute by Mancini, Scarlatti, Emanuele early eighteenth century is quite difficult to Barbella (1718 – 1777), and other Neapolitan trace both because of some terminological composers. uncertainty (the term ‘flauto’ was often used In eighteenth-century London, on for both the recorder and the transverse flute) the other hand, Italian music, including and because the first performers were often instrumental music, was in high demand. oboists who ‘doubled’ on the flute. We know Not only had the English capital become that at the beginning of the century oboes an enclave for Italian musicians – such and flutes made their stable appearance in the as Francesco Geminiani (1687 – 1762), orchestra of the Neapolitan Royal Chapel, Francesco Barsanti (1690 – 1772), Nicola and in 1705 we have the first evidence that Porpora (1686 – 1768), Giovanni Battista the flute (probably still the recorder) was Bononcini (1670 – 1747), and many others – among the instruments taught in at least looking for opportunities for a remunerative one of the four conservatories. This new career, but Italian singers and players interest was accompanied by a production visited the city and performed regularly in of music dedicated in particular to the the opera seasons and concert series that flute. The rather sudden flourishing of this started to develop in the early part of the repertoire was also possibly fuelled by the century. Mancini had indeed been one of the presence in Naples of virtuosi such as the beneficiaries of this trend, as an adaptation of French oboist Ignazio Rion, who came from his L’Idaspe fedele was among the first operas Venice and Rome, where he had performed to be sung entirely in Italian on an English in Handel’s oratorios, and Johann Joachim stage. The interest of professional and amateur Quantz, still a young, but already talented, players in Italian music, and in the repertoire flute virtuoso who visited Naples in 1725 and associated with the recorder in particular, from Alessandro Scarlatti received the gift assured great success to Mancini’s Solos. of some sonatas for his instrument. A clear Indeed, a second edition of the collection 10 followed in 1727, published by Walsh & Hare, It is the contrasting character and language and bearing the indication ‘carefully revised and the advanced technical writing present in and corrected by M.