RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Giuseppe TARTINI (1692-1770)
Cantabile e suonabile - Sonatas for violin solo
Sonata XXV in d minor (Brainard d2) [7:43]
Sonata II in d minor (Brainard d1) [9:49]
Sonata [XXVIII] in A (Brainard A2) [10:39]
Sonata [XXXI] in e minor (Brainard e3) [10:35]
Sonata VIII in g minor (Brainard g1) [10:32]
Sonata [XXX] in d minor (Brainard d3) [18:57]
David Plantier (violin)
Annabelle Luis (cello: d1, g1)
rec. 17-20 June 2014, Eglise Sainte Geneviève, Courtomer, France. DDD
AGOGIQUE AGO020 [68:15]
In the 1720s and 1730s the musical climate in Europe started
to change. There was a growing unease with the extremities in some departments,
for instance in opera and in instrumental virtuosity. In 1720 Benedetto Marcello
published his book Il teatro alla moda in which he sharply criticised
the 'bad habits' in contemporary theatre. Georg Philipp Telemann
preferred the French style over the Italian because the latter included too
much virtuosity for its own sake. His friend and colleague Johann Georg Pisendel
admired Vivaldi but was critical about the latest fruits from his pen and
generally about what was written at that time, the late 1730s. Another composer
who was highly critical of Vivaldi's escapades on the violin was Giuseppe
Tartini. Like Telemann he criticised virtuosity as a quality in itself which
he especially observed in Vivaldi's treatment of the violin.
There was a longing for a more 'natural' style, away from pyrotechnics
for their own sake. It was the time when Nature was seen as the source of
Truth, and the closer a man got to Nature, the closer he got to the Truth.
Tartini himself put it this way: "I am at home as much as I can be with
Nature, and as little as possible with Art, having no other Art than the imitation
of Nature". Whereas Tartini was one of the advocates of a more natural
style of playing, somewhat later the German composer Christoph Willibald von
Gluck propagated the same ideals in opera. At the same time counterpoint was
replaced by melody as the foundation of music. In Germany Johann Mattheson
was one of the main advocates of this view. Tartini has become mainly known
for his violin concertos and these are largely devoid of counterpoint. His
criticism of virtuosity doesn't imply that he completely eschewed it.
His music proves otherwise. Moreover, when he heard Francesco Maria Veracini
play he realised that he couldn't stand in his shadow and withdrew
from the concert scene. He concentrated on improving his skills and only then
started to play and compose again.
Today his compositions are still more or less in the shadow of Vivaldi's.
The catalogue includes just one complete recording of his violin concertos,
only a relatively small part of his violin sonatas are known - especially
the one with the nickname 'Devil's trill' - and the pieces
which are the subject of the present disc are largely unknown. That is all
the more surprising as they represent the largest number of compositions for
violin solo without accompaniment of a basso continuo or a keyboard in history.
Tartini himself called them piccole sonate (little sonatas); he composed
26 of them. It is not known when they have been written but some of them date
from before 1750.
Most of the sonatas are in four movements but there is little that alludes
to Corelli's sonatas which for a long time served as models for composers
across Europe. The Sonata in A, for instance, opens with an adagio
which is followed by two fast movements (allegro and presto) and closes with
a giga. The opening movement has a title: 'La mia filli'. Tartini
often gave movements from his sonatas and concertos a title which reflect
his strong interest in literature. However, these titles have no programmatic
function; they merely refer to what inspired Tartini while composing those
movements. Their meaning is not revealed to the listener, also because we
don't know from which literary works these titles are taken.
Like in his concertos the most frequent character indication for the slower
movements is andante. This matches Tartini's general preference
for cantabile playing which several movements explicitly refer to.
It is the character indication of the first movement from the Sonata XXX
in d minor. The Sonata XXV in d minor opens with an andante
cantabile and the Sonata XXXI in e minor with an aria cantabile.
Another indication which regularly returns is affettuoso: the third
movement from the Sonata VIII in g minor bears this title and the
Sonata II in d minor closes with an allegro affettuoso.
Virtuosity can be mostly found in the fast movements. In a letter to one of
his students Tartini refers to "the foundations of his teaching, and
in particular the mastering of the bow technique designed to create an 'o
sonabile, o cantabile' play, hence either instrumental or vocal",
Jean-Christophe Pucek states in his liner-notes. Both aspects come to the
fore in these sonatas. A feature of Tartini's virtuosity is his use
of double stopping.
The latter suggests an important role of counterpoint but in his notes David
Plantier emphasizes the difference between Tartini and, for instance, Bach.
"According to the aesthetics of his time Tartini forgoes the counterpoint
while sublimating its melodic side. Polyphony, discreet but present, keeps
with the exclusive function of support to the song. He focuses on the substance
of music itself, its capacity to move, its power to evoke, as only the greatest
geniuses have been able to do." We see here clear similarities with the
aesthetic ideals of someone like Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach who wrote that
the performer should be moved himself in order to move his audience.
The sonatas bear witness to Tartini's aesthetic credo. Every movement
is full of expression, not only the slower but also the faster movements.
The very first track of this disc, the andante cantabile which opens the Sonata
XXV is a sign of what is to come. There is no need to single out specific
movements or sonatas but if you have the chance to listen to an extract you
should take the Sonata XXVIII which includes all the features mentioned
above.
In two sonatas we hear a cello playing the bass line. In a letter Tartini
explained that he added a bassetto "out of convention"
but "I myself play them without bass and such is my true intention".
Plantier writes that the bass lines show that they were written "without
particular care". He decided to play two sonatas with bass played here
with cello alone. He calls this option "a true novelty" but that
seems questionable. Many sonatas of the baroque era mention that the basso
continuo should be played by a string bass or a keyboard. This is
generally interpreted as a combination of both but that is not necessarily
correct. Anyway, it is interesting to hear these two sonatas that way, and
it is remarkable that this results in strong dissonances between violin and
bass in the opening movement of the Sonata II in d minor.
The wonderful flow which is a feature of these sonatas is impressively conveyed
by David Plantier. His breathing style of playing with subtle dynamic shading
does full justice to the lyrical and poetical qualities of Tartini's
sonatas. In the giga which closes the Sonata XXVIII he shows a strong
sense of rhythm which makes the piece really dance.
This is one of the best Tartini discs I have heard in recent years. If you
love violin music, don't miss it.
Johan van Veen
www.musica-dei-donum.org
twitter.com/johanvanveen
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