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Giuseppe TORELLI (1658 - 1709): Concerti grossi & Violin sonatas
[I] "12 Concerti grossi op. VIII"
Ensemble Locatelli
Dir: Chiara Cattani
rec: July 2020, Dalmine (BG), Chiesa di San Lorenzo Martire
Tactus - TC 652090 (© 2023) (1.55'09")
Liner-notes: E/IT
Cover, track-list & booklet
Spotify
Concerto I in C, op. 8,1a;
Concerto II in a minor, op. 8,2a;
Concerto III in E, op. 8,3a;
Concerto IV in B flat, op. 8,4a;
Concerto V in G, op. 8,5a;
Concerto VI 'per il Santissimo Natale' in g minor, op. 8,6a;
Concerto VII in d minor, op. 8,7b;
Concerto VIII in c minor, op. 8,8b;
Concerto IX in e minor, op. 8,9b;
Concerto X in A, op. 8,10c;
Concerto XI in F, op. 8,11c;
Concerto XII in D, op. 8,12c
Sources:
Concerti grossi con una Pastorale per la Santissimo Natale, op. 8, 1709
Roberto Noferini (concertinoa, solob), Jérémie Chigioni (concertinoa, soloc), Pierfrancesco Pelàa, Elena Zibettia, Fabio Storellia, Emilie Chigioni, violin;
Nicola Sangaletti, viola;
Thomas Chigioni, cello;
Carlo Sgarro, violone;
Andrea Antonel, lute, theorbo;
Chiara Cattani, Tomas Gavazzia, harpsichord
[II] "Travelling with a violin"
Sue-Ying Koang, violin;
Diana Vinagre, cello;
Parsival Castro, theorbo, guitar;
Vincent Bernhardt, harpsichord, organ
rec: Sept 13 - 16, 2022, Église protestante
Indesens - IC019 (© 2023) (49'13")
Liner-notes: E/F
Cover & track-list
Spotify
Allemanda in e minor (A.1.3.4) [1];
Allemanda in a minor (A.1.3.5) [1];
Corrente in e minor (A.1.3.3) [1];
Corrente in a minor (A.1.3.7) [1];
Giga in A (A.1.3.2) [1];
Gigha stachato in a minor (A.1.3.6);
Sinfonia per camera in d minor (A.4.1.8)
Sonata in D;
Sonata in e minor (A.1.3.8);
Sonata in g minor (A.1.3.10);
Sonata in A (A.1.3.11);
Vivace in A (A.1.3.1) [1]
Sources:
[1] John Cluer, ed., Medulla Musicae, c1727
Scores
Giuseppe Torelli can be considered one of the most important composers of the Italian Baroque. He played a key role in the development of the concerto grosso and the solo concerto, and was one of the founders of the Bolognese trumpet school. His contributions to the repertoire for trumpet and strings are substantial, and represent the best-known part of his oeuvre. One of his concerti grossi is intended for performance at Christmas night, and is therefore included in recordings of Italian 'Christmas concertos'. His other concerti grossi are seldom performed, and his chamber music is nearly unknown. Recently two releases fill in those gaps.
Let us first have a look at his biography. Torelli was born in Verona; his father was a health inspector and the family was living in comfortable circumstances. In Verona Torelli received his first musical training from a local musician. At the age of 18 he played the violin in a Vesper service in one of the churches, and in 1683/84 he was a violinist at Verona Cathedral. In 1684 he was admitted as a suonatore di violino to the Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna and moved to that city. There he continued his violin studies, and he also studied composition with Giacomo Perti. In 1686 he entered the service of San Petronio; this lasted until 1696, when the orchestra of the cathedral was disbanded for economic reasons. Torelli went to Germany; in 1698 he was appointed maestro di concerto at the court of the Margrave of Brandenburg in Ansbach. In 1699/1700 he was in Italy, where he promoted music by Perti. From 1701 until his death in 1709 he was in Bologna again, and played in the chapel of San Petronio which Perti had founded. He was described by his contemporaries as "a man not only of docile and humble habits but also erudite and eloquent".
Torelli composed only a few sacred works, among them an oratorio on a German text, which he performed in Vienna; only the libretto is extant. Seven collections of instrumental music were printed; the last is a set of concerti grossi, published posthumously in 1709 in Bologna as his Op. 8. However, it is different from what one may expect of a collection of concerti grossi. The first six are of the type we are used to, but the concertos 7 to 12 are in fact solo concertos. This means that the Op. 8 brings together two genres to whose development Torelli substantially contributed. The concerti grossi are mostly in five movements; one has three and another four. They are not entirely comparable with the concerti grossi by Corelli, which date from about the same time: the concertino consists of two violins; often but not always they are accompanied by the cello, which has a harmonic rather than melodic function. In these pieces Torelli shows his command of counterpoint. One of the most theatrical movements is the second allegro of the Concerto No. 4. The Concerto No. 6 is the 'Christmas concerto', which is mentioned in the title of the collection (con una pastorale per il SS Natale). It has four movements, and the second, a vivace, has a pastoral character.
The second half of this collection comprises six concertos for violin, strings and basso continuo. The solo parts may well give us an idea of Torelli's own skills as a player of the violin. They are technically demanding, and include double and tripple stopping. The violin also regularly moves from the high to the low register and vice versa. The solo parts are expressive and sometimes theatrical. The opening movement of the Concerto No. 11 (without tempo indication) is a real firework.
This production seems to be the first recording of the complete Op. 8, which is rather surprising, but says much about the one-sidedness of the interest in Torelli's oeuvre. Fortunately the Ensemble Locatelli delivers excellent performances. The ensemble is very good, and the solo parts are impressively executed by Roberto Noferini and Jérémie Chigioni respectively. The director of the ensemble, Chiara Cattani, has based her interpretation on the assumption that these concertos may have been played in a liturgical setting in San Petronio. "We should also point out that the Cappella di San Petronio has a particular structure with two choirs, each with its own organ (one by Lorenzo di Giacomo, from Prato, and the other one, on the opposite side, by Baldassarre Malamini). This allowed us to adopt a particular musical practice, with vocal and instrumental performances divided into two groups, resulting in a grand spatial and stereophonic effect (...). [Whenever] the two violins were alternating with each other and not intertwining, we chose to divide the basso continuo, so as to ensure that each of the two violins had its own specific accompanying group of instruments." The performers also include embellishments and diminutions in the slow movements, cadenzas and rests with fermata. Sometimes a basso continuo instrument plays a short cadenza. The latter is something I don't always find convincing, for instance the harpsichord cadenza in the 'Christmas concerto'.
However, this is only a very minor issue. I am happy with this recording of a set of concertos which has been neglected far too long. A complete recording as we have here, was long overdue. This is a major release, which should encourage other ensembles to investigate the oeuvre of Torelli. That also goes for the second disc to be reviewed here.
Vincent Bernhardt, in his liner-notes, points out that "the works published in opus form by musicians of this period are not always fully representative of their output: intended for a relatively broad public, one often sufficiently well-off to buy printed collections, they tend to present their creators' most conventional side." He is generally right, although there are certainly exceptions. However, it is true that music that was not published, is often more experimental and more personal in character, often intended for the composers' own performances or for other professional players. That certainly goes for the sonatas included in the recording under review.
The construction of the sonatas suggests that they are not 'conventional'. However, one needs to keep in mind that the sonata was not standardized yet. As these sonatas were not published, it is probably impossible to date them. The liner-notes don't indicate their year of composition, but they may have been written before Corelli published his sonatas, which became the standard for composers of his and later generations. Torelli's sonatas seem to be the link between sonatas of the first half of the 17th century - written in the stylus phantasticus - and those by composers from the early 18th century, such as Vivaldi and Albinoni. In this respect one could probably compare Torelli with his older colleague Giovanni Legrenzi.
The disc opens with the Sonata in e minor, which consists of seven movements, some of which are very short. That goes for the opening movement, an adagio which takes 42 seconds, and consists nearly entirely of staccato chords, played forte. The same chords return in the centre of the fourth movement, another adagio. The fifth movement has no tempo indication, and takes less than forty seconds; it is a single long run for the violin. The Sonata in A has only three movements, without tempo indications. It has been preserved in manuscript in Dresden, and the copy was made by the concertmaster of the court orchestra, Johann Georg Pisendel, who was a stauch admirer of the Italian style and one of Torelli's pupils. In the track-list the movements are marked as allemande, courante and giga respectively. The performers have chosen to take the first movement slow, and the other two fast. That is also the order of the three movements of the Sonata in D: adagio, allegro, giga.
The order of the four movements of the Sonata in g minor is what was to become the standard: slow, fast, slow, fast. However, the indication of the closing movement, jigg, is rather unusual. The Sinfonia per camera in d minor has also four movements in the same order; here the closing movement is a giga. However, according to its title this is a piece for violin and cello. Torelli's oeuvre includes a number of sonatas for this scoring. His Op. 4 (1688) is a set of twelve sonatas for violin, cello and basso continuo. Despite the title of the piece included here, the cello does not play an obbligato role, unlike in the sonatas Op. 4. The latter set is interesting for the illumination of the separate cello part: a player of the viola da spalla, which was tuned like a cello, but held on the shoulder. It is a bit of a missed opportunity that in this recording a 'conventional' cello is used.
Torelli's oeuvre also includes some separate movements; six of those played here are taken from a collection of pieces by different composers, grouped by key, put together and published by the English music printer John Cluer. The performers have added a seventh piece, which is part of a collection of cantatas printed in 1689.
This may well be the first time that I have heard Torelli's violin sonatas, and the acquaintance is a very pleasant one. Each piece included here is of excellent quality, and there can be no doubt that he was a virtuoso on the violin. These sonatas are unusual, but very interesting and compelling. The ensemble delivers high-spirited performances, and the violin playing by Sue-Ying Koang is most impressive, technically and stylistically. This is a disc no lover of the (baroque) violin should miss. The short playing time is a bit disappointing, but Bernhardt's phrase "our first disc devoted to Torelli's chamber music" suggests that there is more to come. I am looking forward to their next recording of Torelli's sonatas.
Johan van Veen (© 2024)
Relevant links:
Sue-Ying Koang
Vincent Bernhardt
Ensemble Locatelli