Giuseppe TARTINI (1692-1770)
Violin Concerto in A major, D.96
Violin Concerto in B flat major, D.117
Violin Concerto in G major, D.78
Violin Concerto in E minor, D.56
Violin Concerto in G major, D.83
Salvatore Accardo (violin)
I Musici (D.96, 117 & 78); English Chamber Music (D.78, 56 &
83)
rec. 5-7 September 1973, Salle des Remparts, La tour de Peltz, Switzerland
(D.96, 117 & 78); 26-27 February 1982, St. Barnabas Church, North
Finchley, London, England (D.78, 56 & 83)
ELOQUENCE 482 5079 [61:51 + 42:14]
There could hardly be a better combination than Salvatore Accardo and I
Musici on the first disc of this collection of Tartini's Violin Concertos.
In these works, which straddle the Baroque and Classical eras, the
performers are at one in the way they bring out the formal elegance of the
music's structure with sparkle and buoyancy demonstrating the ways in which
Tartini foreshadowed composers such as Haydn and Boccherini. But a balanced
contrast is struck with the Baroque character of the music: Accardo steps
out seamlessly from his integrated playing with I Musici in the recurring
ritornello sections for all the instrumentalists and into the limelight as
the soloist in the intervening sections, presaging the more fully developed
concertos of Mozart, for example, with the almost Classically refined
profile of their melodies.
In the latter Accardo pursues the melodic line like a golden thread with
sweet, soft-toned phrases that embody a richer timbre than
authentic-practice performers would countenance today, but is not so
lustrously Romantic as to unsettle the overall balance of these poised
interpretations. That effect is most stunning in the rapt slow movements
where the simplicity of Tartini's writing is invested by the performers with
a profound emotional character - in the case of the Concerto in G D.78, the
Largo andante is scored simply for the soloist over soft pulsing quavers
from the two orchestral violin parts alone. Even where the music becomes
more strenuous, as in the contrapuntal first movement of the B flat Concerto
and its cadenza, Accardo retains composure of tone and the linear unity of
the music's long phrases.
Equally impressive is the panache with which both Accardo and I Musici
realise the more florid aspects of Tartini's writing, where ornamental
triplets remain under consummate control, as do the frothy execution of
trills, especially in the first movement of the A major Concerto. Accardo's
embellishments of the solo line in the repeated sections of some movements
may take too many liberties for some, such as in the above-mentioned G major
Concerto. But there is no doubting the stylishness with which he carries
that off, and the nature of his embellishments certainly take their cue from
those written into Tartini's score.
As an early ensemble which similarly turned from older-fashioned ideas
about the performance of Baroque music towards a lighter-footed charisma,
whilst still using modern instruments, the English Chamber Orchestra's
performances on the second disc complement those by I Musici on the first.
The ECO are a little more sturdy and forthright than their Italian
counterparts whose crisp textures sound as though achieved more or less
effortlessly. But, if anything, Accardo delivers the solo part with a
sweeter daintiness, sustaining more of a contrast between his contribution
and that of the ECO's. This re-issued double CD set provides a welcome
confirmation of Accardo's reputation as a performer whose unmannered but
characterful playing is as enticing in the music of the Baroque era as it is
in the Romantic Concerto warhorses.
Curtis Rogers
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