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Tartini - Diavolo: 6 Violin Sonatas

£12.69

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Label: Signum

Cat No: SIGCD781

Barcode: 0635212078129

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Chamber

Release Date: 22nd March 2024

Works

Tartini, Giuseppe

Sonatas (26) for violin and cello

» no.6 in E minor

» no.9 in A major

Violin Sonata in G minor 'Devil's Trill'
Violin Sonatas (12) and a Pastorale, op.1

» no.1 in A major

» no.6 in D major

» no.7 in D major

Artists

Adrian Chandler (violin)
La Serenissima

Works

Tartini, Giuseppe

Sonatas (26) for violin and cello

» no.6 in E minor

» no.9 in A major

Violin Sonata in G minor 'Devil's Trill'
Violin Sonatas (12) and a Pastorale, op.1

» no.1 in A major

» no.6 in D major

» no.7 in D major

Artists

Adrian Chandler (violin)
La Serenissima

About

The latest instalment from baroque ensemble La Serenissima.

Often compared to Vivaldi, Giuseppe Tartini was a famous virtuoso violinist and highly respected teacher and is best known for the sonata ‘Il Trillo del Diavolo’ (The Devil’s Trill), which is legendary for both its story and for its fiendish level of technical wizardry.

Sound/Video

Paused

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Violin Sonata in D major, op.1 no.6 (1734), B.D12 / GT 2.D12: 1. Adagio
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Violin Sonata in D major, op.1 no.6 (1734), B.D12 / GT 2.D12: 2. Allegro
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Violin Sonata in D major, op.1 no.6 (1734), B.D12 / GT 2.D12: 3. Larghetto
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Violin Sonata in D major, op.1 no.6 (1734), B.D12 / GT 2.D12: 4. Allegro
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Sonata no.9 in A major for violin & cello (26 Sonatas), B.A1 / GT 2.A01: 1. Largo andante
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Sonata no.9 in A major for violin & cello (26 Sonatas), B.A1 / GT 2.A01: 2. Allegro
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Sonata no.9 in A major for violin & cello (26 Sonatas), B.A1 / GT 2.A01: 3. Allegro assai
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Sonata no.9 in A major for violin & cello (26 Sonatas), B.A1 / GT 2.A01: 4. Menuet
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Violin Sonata in D major, op.1 no.7 (1734), B.D6 / GT 2.D06: 1. Grave
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Violin Sonata in D major, op.1 no.7 (1734), B.D6 / GT 2.D06: 2. Allegro
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Violin Sonata in D major, op.1 no.7 (1734), B.D6 / GT 2.D06: 3. Allegro
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Violin Sonata no.6 in E minor (26 Sonatas), B.e1 / GT 2e.01: 1. Andante cantabile. Senti lo mare
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Violin Sonata no.6 in E minor (26 Sonatas), B.e1 / GT 2e.01: 2. Allegro cantabile
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Violin Sonata no.6 in E minor (26 Sonatas), B.e1 / GT 2e.01: 3. Giga
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Violin Sonata no.6 in E minor (26 Sonatas), B.e1 / GT 2e.01: 4. Allegro assai
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Violin Sonata in A major, op.1 no.1 (1734), B.A14 / GT 2.A14: 1. Grave
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Violin Sonata in A major, op.1 no.1 (1734), B.A14 / GT 2.A14: 2. Allegro – Adagio
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Violin Sonata in A major, op.1 no.1 (1734), B.A14 / GT 2.A14: 3. Presto
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Violin Sonata in G minor ‘Il trillo del Diavolo’, B.g5 / GT 2.g05: 1. Andante / Larghetto affettuoso
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Violin Sonata in G minor ‘Il trillo del Diavolo’, B.g5 / GT 2.g05: 2. Allegro
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Violin Sonata in G minor ‘Il trillo del Diavolo’, B.g5 / GT 2.g05: 3. Andante – Allegro – Andante – Allegro – Andante – Allegro – Adagio

Europadisc Review

Born in Pirano (present-day Piran in Slovenia), Giuseppe Tartini spent most of his life – apart from a three-year sojourn in Prague – in north-eastern Italy, in the lands surrounding the northern Adriatic. He was originally destined by his parents for the church, which involved studies in both the law and music. This did not prevent him from becoming an expert at fencing (which he took part in while in priestly garb!), and his character was an intriguing mixture of fieriness and mystical introspection.

In 1710, against his parents’ wishes, he married Elisabetta Premazore, a woman of lower social standing and moreover mistress of Cardinal Giorgio Cornaro. This occasioned a flight to the monastery of St Francis in Assisi, where he spent some years honing his violin technique. Unlike another priest-violinist with whom he is often compared, Vivaldi, Tartini concentrated his output almost exclusively on his own instrument, producing a huge output of violin concertos and sonatas notable for their formidable technical demands.

It is on the violin sonatas that Adrian Chandler and his ensemble La Serenissima focus their attention on their latest disc for Signum Records. As well as the famous ‘Devil’s Trill’ Sonata on which Tartini’s modern reputation almost exclusively rests, Chandler plays three of the 12 Opus 1 Sonatas for violin and continuo (published in 1734), placing between them two of the 26 Piccole Sonate for violin and optional cello. The Opus 1 Sonatas show the influence of Corelli, with the first six cast as ‘church’ sonatas with fugal second movements, the second six in the ‘chamber’ genre drawing on dance forms.

The disc opens with the D major Sonata, op.1 no.6, bathed in that cantabile sound that was a Tartini speciality, yet replete with double-stops that enrich the texture and give the impression at times of a trio sonata texture. The mournful D minor Larghetto third movement is a particular highlight, giving way to jaunty high spirits in the gigue-like concluding Allegro. Op.1 no.7, also in D major, opens with an introspective Grave, before settling into a pair of rather earthier Allegros, their character underscored by a strummed element in the continuo (courtesy of theorbo/guitarist Lynda Sayce). An interesting feature of the A major Sonata, op.1 no.1, is that both its fast movements – an Allegro second movement and Presto third which follows after a brief intervening Adagio – employ the same head-motif, but to very different ends: the first exquisitely positive, the second much chirpier.

Of the two Piccole Sonate heard here, no.9 in A major includes the optional cello (played in complete harmony with Chandler’s violin by Vladimir Waltham, so that the two instruments sound as one). This scoring underlines the bucolic side of the Allegro third movement, and adds a grounded quality to the concluding Menuet, taken at a fairly sedate pace. The E minor Sonata, no.6 from the same collection, is remarkable for its ‘poetic’ inspiration: the Andante cantabile first movement is headed ‘Senti lo mare’ (‘Listen to the sea’), and Chandler – playing alone here – perfectly conveys a sense of rapt contemplation. The Allegro cantabile second movement has an air of wistful severity about it, and even the following Giga can’t shake off this serious feeling. The Allegro assai finale is preceded by a stanza from Metastasio’s Siroe: ‘The wave that murmurs / from shore to shore, / the breeze that trembles / from branch to branch, / is less unstable / than your heart.’ Chandler takes this on board in a performance that is as notable for its thoughtfulness as for the flawless technique and intonation that are hallmarks of the disc as a whole.

A very different inspiration lies behind the G minor ‘Devil’s Trill’ Sonata: a famous dream in which Tartini made a pact with the Devil who then played a ‘wonderful and beautiful’ sonata which, on waking, Tartini sought to capture. Debate rages over the date of the resulting work, as Chandler outlines in his detailed booklet notes. This performance sets such arguments aside and grabs the music by its (devilish?) horns, from the siciliano-like opening movement with its extraordinary harmonic disruptions, through the exuberance of the central Allegro (itself replete with trills), to the schizophrenic concluding movement with its own ‘Devil’s trills’: the violin’s upper voice introducing a chain of trills over impetuous moving quavers in the lower voice. Chandler delivers these passages with the perfect combination of panache and technical rigour. It makes a suitably jaw-dropping close to a mouthwatering disc, vividly recorded in Wells Cathedral School’s Cedars Hall, which needs to be heard by all lovers of Baroque music and refined, impassioned violin playing. Bravissimi!