Antonio Lolli is an entirely new addition to my list of composers
with amusing names. While this may attract some people to try
this repertoire it is not so very far from the better known
Jean-Baptiste Lully, a name which is eternally amusing to Dutch
music pupils. Very little is known about this violinist and
composer, who was one of the eighteenth centuries’ ever-migrant
virtuosi. He appears from 1758 in the court of Stuttgart, and
from 1774 to 1783 he was employed by Empress Catherine II of
Russia. He turns up in London in 1785, though apparently made
little impact. In 1794 he moved to Vienna, then to Naples and
in 1796 he finally settled in Palermo, where he died a pauper
having gambled away most of his fortune. His musical education
and background is also shrouded in mystery, though many music
historians consider him something of an autodidact, and not
the member of any particular school of performing. The booklet
notes insert a quote from Gervasoni’s Nuova Teoria
di Musica ricavata dall’odierna pratica (New Music
Theory based on present-day practice) of 1812, “Everyone
who has heard him affirms that he has a prodigious hand and
that he could perform certain difficulties that were impossible
for others. No one before him had ever drawn from the violin
those higher notes that he could achieve with such strength
and precision... He delighted then in performing in France,
in England and in Spain and everywhere he won admiration and
astonishment with the magic power of his enchanting skills.”
It is however more for his performing skills that Lolli is mentioned,
rather than his talents as a composer. The Dynamic label has
released a CD of his complete violin concertos, so together
with this companion disc of sonatas they now have a fairly comprehensive
survey of Antonio Lolli’s surviving compositional output.
He left several collections of Sonatas for violin and basso
continuo, of which this disc is a selection. A certain amount
of thought has clearly gone into the programming, and as a ‘best
of’ collection of Lolli’s sonatas this will do very
nicely.
The Sonata Op.9 no. 2 in G major which opens the disc is described
as having a ‘pre-Paganini character’, and indeed
with ‘those higher notes’ and technical fireworks
from the solo violin, here joined in duet by a second instrument
with a lesser role, this is one of the more impressive pieces
here. The ‘early classical’ style of these pieces
is fairly consistent, and not particularly stunning in terms
of harmonic invention. These sonatas were clearly as much a
vehicle for solo display, and while they were clearly marketable
as their many printed editions show, the music is more entertaining
than intrinsically of memorable substance. We won’t know
exactly what Lolli would have done with these works himself
in terms of extemporisation around the basic material, but I
can imagine he would have been more daring than soloist Luca
Fanfoni on this recording. These performances are serviceable
and competent enough, even with one or two forgivable minor
blemishes here and there. Fanfoni has the loan of a 1775 Tommaso
Balestieri violin for this recording, but authentic instrument
aside he doesn’t go in much for extra ornamentation even
where repeats might seem to invite a certain amount of improvisation.
Admittedly there is frequently a deal of double-stopping and
other demands which might stand in the way of too much playful
extra invention, but I miss a certain amount of the ‘zip’
which might have brought these sonatas more to life. Lolli sometimes
takes care of technical variation himself, with the Minuetto
con variazioni finale of the Sonata in A major op. 3
no. 5 an exemplary study in violin athletics. This contrasts
nicely with one of the more effective of a collection of otherwise
undramatic slow movements, another fine example being the Adagio
from the Sonata in A major opus 1 n. 4. Lolli’s
attention may have been more on the bravura nature of violin
performance, but one can imagine how he might also have been
able to move his sensitive 18th century audiences
with a certain amount of affect through these movements.
The period character of these performances is assured through
some respectable harpsichord and cello basso continuo accompanying.
Neither the music itself nor the performances are going to set
the world alight with a new rage of discovery, but respect goes
to the Dynamic label for this exploration of a fairly untrodden
musical byway.
Dominy Clements
Luca Fanfoni (violin); Marianne Chen (cello); Paula Del Giudice
(harpsichord); Erich Galliani (guitar*); Antonella Tanetti (violin*)
