Leonardo LEO (1694-1744)
Recorder Sonatas
Sonata I in F [9:46]
Sonata II in C [8:48]
Sonata VI in g minor [6:45]
Sonata IV in F [7:28]
Sonata III in d minor [8:37]
Sonata V in F [8:23]
Sonata VII in d minor [8:59]
(Tommaso Rossi (recorder), Marco Vitali (cello), Raffaele di Donna (bass
recorder), Ugo di Giovanni (archlute), Patrizia Varone (harpsichord))
Ensemble Barocco di Napoli
rec. 8-10 June 2013, Chiesa dell'Arciconfraternita di S. Maria
Visita Poveri e dei SS. Bernardo e Margherita (Chiesa di Santa Maria della
Graziella), Naples, Italy. DDD
STRADIVARIUS STR33969 [58:54]
The present disc bears witness to the remarkable connection between Naples
and the recorder. The best-known collection of Neapolitan recorder music is
a manuscript of 24
concerti da camera known as
Manoscritto di
Napoli 1725. Among the composers represented there are Alessandro
Scarlatti and Francesco Mancini. The latter also published a collection of
twelve recorder sonatas in London.
It is not easy to explain why so much music for the recorder was written
in Naples. The Italian musicologist Dinko Fabris has suggested it could be
due to a visit to Naples by the German flautist Johann Joachim Quantz in
1725. However, it is hard to see why an exponent of the transverse flute
would have stimulated the composing for the recorder which in other parts of
the world was on the way to becoming obsolete. Moreover, in his liner-notes
to this disc Tommaso Rossi states that the archives of the Neapolitan
conservatories "testify to the presence of the recorder as early as
1704 among the wind instruments taught". He adds: "One infers an
important role for the recorder also from examining the scores [of] operas
and serenades of the period 1710-1730, where its use is linked to the
evocation of pastoral and bucolic scenes, with an evident descriptive
role".
The seven sonatas by Leonardo Leo are recorded here for the first time,
with the exception of the
Sonata III in d minor which was included
by Daniel Rothert in the programme of on his disc 'Tesori di
Napoli' (
review). They are from a collection which was put together by the Austrian
Aloys Thomas Raimund von Harrach (1669-1742) who from 1728 to 1733 was
Viceroy of the kingdom of Naples - from 1707 Naples had been occupied by
Austria - and was a great lover of music and sponsor of the arts. Today the
greater part of the collection is preserved in the New York Public Library;
other sources have remained in the Harrach Family Archive in the Austrian
State Archives. Why the collection includes a remarkable number of recorder
pieces is impossible to say. The Viceroy may have played the instrument
himself - in that case he must have been a quite skilful player - or he may
have had a recorder player in his household.
The fact that Leo composed sonatas for the recorder is equally remarkable
as he was first and foremost a composer of vocal music, in particular
operas. The work-list in
New Grove includes a long list of operas,
serenatas, prologues,
feste teatrali, sacred dramas and oratorios
as well as a considerable number of sacred works. To that many chamber
cantatas, arias and duets can be added but these have not been completely
sorted out as yet. In comparison the roster of instrumental works is rather
short, and doesn't include any recorder sonatas. His best-known
instrumental works are six cello concertos which belong to the standard
repertoire of the baroque cello today.
If a composer had such credentials in the realm of opera one may expect
operatic traits in his instrumental music. That is certainly the case in his
cello concertos as well as in these recorder sonatas. Some of the fast
movements in particular include unmistakable theatrical gestures, and some
of the slow movements are quite expressive. Those features come across quite
well in these performances. Rossi sometimes slightly varies the tempo in the
interests of expressive force. He could have gone yet a step further; here
and there I felt that key moments would have been emphasized by slowing down
the tempo and giving them more weight. A particularly notable aspect of
these performances is the differentiation in the scoring of the basso
continuo, reflecting a variety in the performance practice of the time. In
the
Sonata I, for instance, it is performed by cello, archlute and
harpsichord, but in the
Sonata IV we hear only the harpsichord.
Especially interesting is the
Sonata V where the archlute is joined
by the bass recorder, a quite unusual choice for the scoring of the basso
continuo part.
This is a very fine disc which I have greatly enjoyed. Recorder
aficionados will love it.
Johan van Veen
www.musica-dei-donum.org
twitter.com/johanvanveen
