Few music-lovers will never have heard the name of Pietro Nardini, but
whether they have ever heard his music is a different matter. Over the years
I had never heard anything from his pen; not until Brilliant Classics
released a disc of 'Sonatas for Strings' with the Ensemble
Ardi Cor Mio (93347). It included some of the
Fourteen New Italian
Minuets for Two Violins & a Bass which were printed in London
around 1750 and are considered his earliest compositions.
Nardini was born in Livorno and after having received his first lessons on
the violin there he became a pupil of Giuseppe Tartini in 1734. He developed
into one of the greatest violinists of his time and travelled across Europe
as a performing virtuoso. During the 1760s he gave concerts in Austria and
Germany. In 1768 he settled in Florence where he was appointed solo
violinist and two years later music director of the chapel of the court of
Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany. There he remained until his death. He had
various pupils who developed into famous performers.
Nardini was noted for his perfect technique, bow control and sound.
Leopold Mozart was full of praise: "The beauty, purity and evenness of
his tone and his cantabile cannot be surpassed". In April 1770 he
visited Nardini with Wolfgang, and the virtuoso and the young prodigy played
together. In September of that year Charles Burney paid him a visit as well.
Nardini was especially famous for his performances of adagios. This is an
indication that he felt more attracted to lyricism and expression than to
virtuosity which is in line with the preferences of his teacher Tartini.
This disc is devoted to his string quartets. The title says "Complete
String Quartets" but in his liner-notes Federico Marri refers to two
further quartets which have been preserved in manuscript. These are not
included here. The six quartets were printed in Florence, probably in 1782,
but seem to have been composed earlier. According to
New Grove they
were written in the 1770s, but Marri states that Nardini started composing
quartets in the years 1765-67. It is quite possible that they were written
at various stages in Nardini's career as the first three are
different from the last. That concerns especially the balance within the
ensemble: in the first three quartets the focus is on the two violins. In
the later quartets the viola and cello play an extended role: the former
coming forward in the allegro of the
Quartet No. 4, whereas the
cello has a solo episode in the allegro from the
Quartet No. 6. The
liner-notes mention that string quartet lovers in Germany who had purchased
his quartets were not satisfied with them because they failed to meet their
expectations. We are not told what exactly they didn't like about
them.
These quartets are all in two movements: an allegro and a movement in a
more moderate tempo, mostly andante. Only the
Quartet No. 2 has
three movements, although the adagio in the middle lasts just over 90
seconds. It is preceded by an allegro which ends with a short transitional
slow passage; the two movements are played
attacca. The
Quartet
No. 4 opens with a short adagio which is a kind of prelude to the
ensuing allegro, more or less like the slow introductions in some classical
symphonies. These two movements are again played
attacca. Nardini
states that his adagios were unsuitable for the string quartet medium. The
second movements here come pretty close in regard to expression. The
comodo from the
Quartet No. 1, the
andante from
the
Quartet No. 3 and the
andante legato from the
Quartet No. 6 are noteworthy examples of Nardini's skills in
writing expressive music.
I was not very satisfied with the disc of the Ensemble Ardi Cor Mio
mentioned in the first paragraph. This recording is different: the Quartetto
Eleusi, playing on period instruments, deliver excellent performances and
bring out all the qualities of Nardini's quartets. They were written
for amateurs - as were many string quartets of the time, including the
earliest sets by Haydn. They may be not technically very complicated but
that is more than compensated for by their content. They are a good
combination of entertainment and expression and it is regrettable that they
are hardly ever performed. This disc should help to make them better
known.
Johan van Veen
http://www.musica-dei-donum.org
https://twitter.com/johanvanveen
