Andrew MANZE Portrait etc.
Andrew Manze -
violin
Johann Sebastian Bach
(1685 - 1750) Toccata and Fugue in A minor
Francesco Geminiani
Concerto XII in D minor "Follia"
George Frideric Handel
(1685 - 1759)
Concerto VI in G minor, HWV 324
Sonata in A major, HWV
361
Biagio Marini (1587 - 1685) Curiouse
& Moderne Inventioni
Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi
Op. III (1660), no. 3, "La Melana"
Jean-Féry Rebel
Sonate Sixième in B minor
Georg Philipp Telemann
(1681 - 1767) From Gulliver Suite for Two Violins
Marco Uccellini (1603
- 1680) Sonata over Toccata V, Op. IV "Detta La Laura
rilucente"
Antonio Vivaldi (1678
- 1741) Violin Concerto in E-flat major "La tempesta di Mare" Op.
VIII, no. 5, RV 253
Harmonia Mundi
HMX 2907278
[74:34]
Crotchet
£5.99
Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi
Violin Sonatas Op.3/1 - 6
Violin Sonatas Op.4/1 - 6
Harmonia Mundi
HMU 907241
[80:00]
Crotchet
Francesco Geminiani
Concerto I in D major
Concerto II in B-flat major
Concerto III in C major
Concerto IV in F major
Concerto V in G minor
Concerto VI in A major
Concerto VII in D minor
Concerto VIII in E minor
Concerto IX in A major
Concerto X in F major
Concerto XI in E major
Concerto XII in D minor 'Follia'
Cello Sonata in D minor, Op.5 no.2
Arcangelo Corelli
Corelli: Sonata in A major for Violin & Cello
Harmonia Mundi
HMU
907261.62 2 CD
[144:19]
Crotchet
The opportunity to review a batch of CDs featuring the great British baroque
violinist Andrew Manze followed an exceptional
concert
in November 2000, when he directed to the Academy of Ancient Music to
inaugurate its new residency at St John's Smith Square, London.
The Portrait CD is no ordinary sampler. Several of the works
are complete and the whole carefully chosen sequence is unalloyed delight.
It is nearly worth buying for the wise (and beautifully written) essay in
which Manze summarises his musical autobiography and his commitment to baroque
music. That arose fortuitously when, as a Cambridge student, some friends
(including his lifelong friend and regular harpsichordist, Richard Egarr)
'handed me an instrument and showed me a poster with my name on it for the
following Tuesday'! Chagrin evolved into gratitude. He never looked back,
and tells how he relishes the freedom of playing music of three centuries
ago which requires as much creativity to interpret the sparsely notated scores
of the time as, say, does jazz today.
Together with this Portrait, I have received Manze's CD with Richard Egarr
of the wild and wonderful sonatas 'in the stylus phantasticus' of the 17.C
virtuoso violinist Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli , generally known
as Pandolfi (fl.1660-69) and, with the Academy of Ancient Music, their
double CD of Geminiani's Concerti Grossi after Corelli plus
a cello sonata (David Watkins) and a Corelli sonata for violin and cello
alone.
All these are superbly recorded and, needless to say, impeccably played,
with a liveliness which belies their studio origins. The documentation is
as thorough as you could wish and the Geminiani is packaged with a bonus
facsimile contemporary account of the original Academy of Ancient Music which
was founded in 1726. All strongly recommended and no collectors with open
ears should be without some of this Harmonia Mundi series.
Peter Grahame Woolf
