Francesco Saverio Geminiani (1687-1762), born in Lucca, began his study at an early age with his father, but his most important lessons followed in his years with the great Roman Master, Arcangelo Corelli. Composition lessons with Alessandro Scarlatti helped inspire and solidify his craft. In 1714 Geminiani settled in London, where he quickly gained fame as an ensemble player, concert violinist, and teacher. Here he became friends with Handel and led the orchestra during many performances together. Geminiani enjoyed great success not only in London, but also in Ireland where he spent a considerable amount of time. In 1760 he settled in Dublin, dying there in somewhat impoverished circumstances in 1762. Geminiani's playing was distinguished by it's great expressiveness, richness of dynamic coloring, extraordinary liveliness, and a strong temperament. Tartini tellingly called Geminiani "il furibondo" - the furious one! Among his most significant contributions to the Baroque concerto repertoire are his Concerti grossi Opp. 2 and 3, published in 1732 and 1733 respectively. These sets each consist of six concertos and follow the model established by Corelli, particularly his Concerti grossi Op.6. However, Geminiani's works are more expansive and harmonically adventurous. They often feature intricate contrapuntal writing and dramatic contrasts between the concertino (the group of solo instruments) and the ripieno (full ensemble), a hallmark of the concerto grosso form. Op.2 is notable for it's lyrical elegance and refined structure, while Op.3 reveals a bolder, more expressive style, perhaps reflecting Geminiani's growing independence from Corelli's shadow. These works were not only designed for public concert performance but also for teaching and domestic music-making, showing Geminiani's skill in balancing artistic depth with accessibility. Geminiani's Concerti Grossi were well-received in his time and continued to be admired for their rich textures and expressive power. They exemplify the late Baroque ideal of merging virtuosity with emotional intensity. Today, they remain a staple of early music ensembles, highlighting Geminiani's role as a key figure in transmitting and transforming the Italian Baroque tradition for an international audience. Played by the Italian elite group L'Archicembalo, who previously recorded, to great critical acclaim, the String Concertos by Vivaldi for Brilliant Classics.

Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762), son of the violinist Giuliano Geminiani. After a season at the Teatro dei Fiorentini in Naples and a two-year spell at the Cappella Palatina in Lucca, Francesco left his homeland for good in 1714 to pursue a career in London, Dublin and Paris. The flourishing public concert life and optimal publishing conditions in London were attracting a great many Italian musicians, who were adored by the English public, achieving cult-like status - Arcangelo Corelli most of all. As a pupil of Corelli's, Geminiani inherited that legacy, while at the same time promoting an independent development in violin playing. Geminiani not only skilfully used the cult of Corelli and his own privileged position as an Italian musician to market himself; he also cultivated close contacts with powerful patrons, made a name for himself as an event organiser and painting dealer, and published several treatises. Among those, his The Art of Playing on the Violin, which he published at his own expense in 1751, was pioneering. He was responding to a pronounced culture of violin enthusiasts, whose great demand caused a proliferation of amateur schools and rudimentary music compendiums in England. Geminiani's treatise, however, was one of the first in Europe meeting professional standards. It differs significantly in scope and conception from other treatises of the mid-18th century from German-speaking countries, focusing intently on seeking the true nature of musical expression as the highest purpose of music. This is also reflected in the term 'Ornaments of Expression' coined by Geminiani to describe ornaments. He lists a rich selection of ornaments in another method, Treatise of good taste in the Art of Musick, published in 1749, designed to help the musician practise the art of ornamentation and variation. This treatise, along with his Rules for Playing in a true Taste published in 1746, include arrangements and variations based on well-known Scots tunes. The fashion of choosing simple folk songs as the basis for compositions was also utilised by other Italian composers in order to meet the needs and preferences of the English public. Geminiani's variations uniquely combine the Italian art of variation, inspired by the example of Arcangelo Corelli, with the simple grace of Scottish folk songs and ornamentation techniques developed under the influence of many years spent in Paris. The compositions contained in Geminiani's treatises go far beyond mere didactic use. His skilful, idiosyncratic use of harmony, rhythm and ornamentation tells the story of a highly trained, experimental and unconventional artist moving between nations and compositional styles. Other information: - Recorded April 2021 in Gartensaal, Germany - Bilingual booklet in English and German contains liner notes and profiles of the musicians - Francesco Saverio Geminiani was born in Lucca. He began his study at an early age with his father, but his most important lessons followed in his years with the great Roman Master, Arcangelo Corelli. Composition lessons with Alessandro Scarlatti helped inspire and solidify his craft. In 1714 Geminiani settled in London, where he quickly gained fame as an ensemble player, concert violinist, and teacher. Here he became friends with Handel and led the orchestra during many performances together. Geminiani enjoyed great success not only in London, but also in Ireland where he spent a considerable amount of time, settling in Dublin in 1760. - Geminiani's playing was distinguished by it's great expressiveness, richness of dynamic coloring, extraordinary liveliness, and a strong temperament. Tartini called Geminiani "il furibondo" - the furious one! - One of Geminiani's most enduring legacies is his treatise The Art of Playing on the Violin, published in 1751. This influential work is one of the earliest comprehensive guides on violin technique and interpretation. Unlike previous violin tutors, which often focused on basic fingering and bowing, Geminiani's treatise provided detailed insights into expressive playing, ornamentation, and the subtleties of articulation. It reflects the evolving style of violin playing in the 18th century, emphasizing musicality over mere technical proficiency. It covers topics such as bowing techniques, left-hand positioning, and vibrato, offering exercises to develop precision and expressiveness. He also stresses the importance of dynamic contrast and phrasing, essential elements in Baroque performance practice. - Played on period instruments by Anna Kaiser (violin), Johannes Berger (cello) and Solrun Franzdottir Wechner (harpsichord).

Geminiani: Concerti Grossi tratti dalle Op. 3, 1 e 5 di Arca

Classical Music

Geminiani's Sonatas op.5 are particularly significant, marking milestones in my musical journey. What fascinates me about Geminiani is his propensity for unpredictable, asymmetrical and improvisatory style - both as a composer and as a performer. This inspired our own improvisatory approach to ornamentation, continuo realization and timing during the recording session. Geminiani's The Art of Playing the Guitar contains the most comprehensive example of basso continuo realization on the cello, a practice I encouraged in this recording.

No other master equaled him in tone; the sweetness and singing of his violin sound; his fine and elegant taste; his perfection in tempo and intonation (...)". What contemporaries attest to the violin playing of Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762) applies without restriction to his compositions, which are still far too little known. He attached less importance to virtuoso effects � la Vivaldi, but rather to the "melodic grace and adornment" � la Corelli, so much appreciated in his adopted country England. Some of the delicate chamber music treasures are presented here by the Ensemble Apollo's Cabinet.

Classical Music

Acclaimed for their interpretation of Vivaldi and Barriere's sonatas, Bruno Cocset's Les Basses Reunies return to Italian 18th century music in this fantastic new recording. The programmed, comprising sonatas by Francesco Geminiani, calls upon a distinguished guest: theorist and lutist Luca Pianca. Also featured under Cocset is Bertrand Cuiller (harpsichord), Mathurin Martharel (cello), and Richard Myron (double bass).

GEMINIANI Selected harpsichord works • Hank Knox (hpd) • EARLY-MUSIC.COM 7772 (62:46)


When we think of Baroque composers for the harpsichord, certain names spring to mind: Rameau, François Couperin, Domenico Scarlatti, Bach, and Handel; perhaps Duphly, Seixas, Louis Couperin, a few others. Geminiani is not among these. He was celebrated during his lifetime as a composer, a theorist, a violinist with an unusually sweet and beguiling tone that served him well, according to one account, in his final concert, two years before his death at the age of 74. But what this album presents is harpsichord music by Geminiani.


These are arrangements of movements drawn from sonatas originally written for violin and accompaniment. The op. 1 collection that supplies two of the pieces on this album was first published in 1716, and the op. 2 collection that furnishes one cut was transcribed from concerti grossi published in 1732. All but one of the remaining 10 selections (a minuet, described in the liner notes as deriving from an unknown source, presumably part of the group of minuets by the composer published in various 18th-century anthologies) come from Geminiani’s op. 4 of 1739. The keyboard arrangements appeared in 1743, both in Paris and London, as Pièces de clavecin tirées des diffrens ouvrages de Mr. F. Geminiani adaptées par luy même . These would prove popular, especially in conservative England, where some were reprinted as late as 1778. Indeed, Geminiani was to remain a name to conjure with in British musical circles long after his star faded elsewhere. As late as 1792, the brilliant amateur composer John Marsh mentions in his diaries a public concert in which a talented friend included Marsh’s own organ transcription of a Geminiani “violin concerto.”


The arrangements are densely idiomatic, surprisingly so when one considers both their origins for violin and continuo, as well as the composer’s lack of known expertise on the instrument. Knox speculates that it was in 1742, while arranging for the publication of his music in Paris “drawn partly by the superiority of French music engravers” (though not mentioning how the composer no doubt wished as well to secure some financial restitution before the notorious Parisian publishers pirated his new publications) that Geminiani heard Duphly, Daquin, and Rameau in the salon of Madame Duhalley and her daughter. He might have learned something from these recitals, but it’s equally likely that he kept abreast of French developments through these same composers’ publications. In any case, the result is a fluently professional manner that moves easily between the styles of the French and Italian schools, as in the sonata movements marked tendrement and vivement of op. 4/5 (the latter with overtones of Domenico Scarlatti, who also puts in an appearance in the gigue marked vivement of op. 4/4). This is imaginative, at times fanciful music that displays a gift to charm, while neglecting nothing in the way of technical or structural finesse.


Hank Knox manages the dual legacy of the French and Italian schools with ease. He is flexible where flexibility is clearly called for, as in the op. 4/8 movement marked amoureusement , and just as solidly rhythmic as required in the modérément from op. 4/6, or the gayment from op. 4/1. The fugato movement from op. 1/6 finds something between the two, both regular enough to maintain forward motion while phrasing elastically to highlight the harmonic underpinnings of each important entry. Technically there are no problems, tempos are well selected, and an understanding of each piece’s salient musical points is apparent. Knox’s sympathetic treatment of the tendrement from op. 4/5 gives me hope we’ll at some point hear his Rameau.


In the manner of ornamentation, Geminiani, like François Couperin, was explicit in defining appropriate ornamentation of “good taste,” that he stated in one of his treatises was a matter of “expressing with Strength and Delicacy the Intention of the Composer.” He described 14 ornaments, as well as acciaccature , a dissonant note in a chord that is rolled upward or played simultaneously. He wrote out ornamented changes in repeated passages as well, supplying figurations or variations to the treble. Knox wisely chooses to follow Geminiani, or where no ornamentation is provided to proceed along similar lines.


Sound is good, with close miking of a sweet but bright instrument created by Jacob and Abraham Kirckmann in 1772, the earliest surviving harpsichord by the uncle-and-nephew builders. It includes an innovative “machine stop” that instantly changes between one and all registers. (Jacob Kirckmann was to prove less amenable to innovation when it came to installing Adam Walker’s so-called “Celestina stop” in a new harpsichord ordered by Thomas Jefferson 14 years later, because he felt the resin used on the silk thread ultimately destroyed the instrument’s entire tone. But the amiable Jefferson, as usual, knew his own mind, and the Celestina stop was installed.)


I’ve only one minor quibble. In his liner notes to this release, Knox offers the fact that Geminiani refused the post of Master of State Music in Ireland in evidence that the composer avoided permanent institutional positions. Knox may not have been aware that it was made conditional upon Geminiani converting from Roman Catholicism to Church of England. In any case, Geminiani never lacked for patrons in his adopted land, and seemed to have an instinctive gift for getting along with others that several of his other Italian violinist colleagues (including Veracini and Vivaldi) lacked.


Recommended? But of course. This is fine, highly characterized music, excellently played. More, if you please.


FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

As champion of music from Ireland, Peter Whelan and his Irish Baroque Orchestra give a rare glimpse into a fascinating figure of the eighteenth-century Dublin music scene. Who was Rachel Baptist? Not much is known of the ‘Celebrated Black Syren’, other than she was a soprano of African descent and born in Ireland, sang regularly in Dublin, London, Liverpool, and other cities, and performed alongside famed castrato Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci. The program includes works that Baptist might have performed at the ‘Grand Concert of Vocal and Instrumental Musick’ held in 1752, including arias by Handel, Pasquali (a couple of premiere recordings), Purcell, and some additional instrumental pieces. The ‘resplendent’ Rachel Redmond (The New York Times) is the soprano.

Ruhadze plays Geminiani: the latest volume in a revelatory project breathing new life into the founding figures of the Italian violin school of the 18th century.

While Geminiani's Op. 1 collection dates from 1714, just two years after he'd settled in London, Op. 4 was published in 1739, alongside a revision of Op. 1. In the meanwhile he had become known, not only in England but across Europe, for the brilliance and imagination of his playing, which transfers itself so readily on to the pages of these sonatas. They posed the stiffest challenge to violinists of their time – perhaps only Geminiani himself could have done them full justice – and yet now they come alive under the fingers of Ruhadze with new energy in which flamboyance is balanced with grace and elegance.

GEMINIANI Sonatas, op. 1 • London Handel Players • SOMM 2482 (2 CDs: 119:47)

Regarding Geminiani’s habit of revising his music and reissuing it, Adrian Butterfield remarks in his liner notes to this release, “Reworking musical material of one’s own or another one’s composition was, in any case, practiced by many greater composers, Bach, Handel and Mozart in the first place.” This is true, though Geminiani appears to have taken matters much further than they, relative to the quantity of work itself. There are two points in his defense. The first is pragmatic: the consumption of published music being as frantic as it was by the 18th century, new music quickly became old and forgotten. A composer did well to keep his name and compositions before the eye of the public. The second is personal. Geminiani was an extremely astute observer of the international musical scene, who adapted to the changing tastes of the times. There is a long developmental path between the Corellian passages and structures in the original edition of his Sonatas, op. 1 (1716), and his Rebel-like ballet, The Inchanted Forest (1756). He also adapted many of his works to suit those changes, and nowhere is that more evident, as this recording shows, than in the three editions (and a half; some movements he recast for harpsichord) of those same sonatas.

With each of his three editions (1716, 1739, 1757), Geminiani made some alternations that reflect a change of approach. The 1739 version adds numerous written ornaments (often French in style) as well as providing fingerings, where the 1716 version left much more room for the soloist to embellish on their own. The 1757 version turns the works into trio sonatas by the addition of a second violin. More importantly, in each subsequent edition Geminiani effectively refashioned at least some of the sonatas. The Ninth demonstrates how thoroughly this was achieved between the 1737 and 1757 editions. The deliberate thematic simplicity of the Andante movement in 1737 is touching, but by 1757 it has nearly doubled its length, with the second violin sometimes providing the melody in thirds, or supplying counterpoint, along with a few fine moments of passing dissonance. What was charming before is now impressive.

This brings up one matter of regret I have about this recording: that the London Handel Players didn’t offer up two editions side-by-side in more than just the Ninth Sonata (if we exclude the Sixth Sonata, and a movement of the Fourth in which one version features Geminiani’s own harpsichord arrangements.) And why are we given two versions of the 10th and one each of the Seventh and 11th by other hands, but not by Geminiani? Granted, the Seventh and 10th allow us to hear transcriptions respectively for treble recorder and flute that demonstrate Rachel Brown’s facility, stylishness, and breath support to excellent advantage. But with almost 20 minutes free on one disc and nearly 15 on the other, surely we could have had all of the originals, and a few in multiple editions of the composer’s that would have illustrated the points Butterfield makes so tellingly based on the Ninth alone.

It is my only musical criticism, though, given the lack of easily available competition on disc, a significant one. Of the performances, I have nothing but praise to offer. Paul Butterfield’s tone is light and mellifluous throughout. His technique is clean and even, notable for its application of discreet accenting around cadences, and its sweetness in legato passages. Vibrato is used properly as an infrequent coloring device on longer notes, and to excellent effect. Oliver Webber balances perfectly with him in the 1757 trio sonata versions (the Second, Fifth, Sixth, and Ninth), while Laurence Cummings adds a welcome touch of style brisé to the pieces drawn from Geminiani’s two published collections of harpsichord music in 1743 and 1762. Unlike some other groups, the London Handel Players aren’t inclined to push slow tempos, but strive for internal contrast. In short, these are very fine performances indeed.

The engineering is excellent, with just enough roominess to give a bloom to the instruments without obscuring individual lines. The solo harpsichord cuts should have been recorded at a higher volume level, though. I found it necessary to turn my receiver’s volume up for Cummings, and down again once the ensemble began playing.

With reservations noted, then, strongly recommended. Geminiani has been a personal favorite of mine among Italian Baroque composers ever since I first heard his The Inchanted Forest roughly 40 years ago, followed later by the Concerti Grossi, op. 3, and the Sonatas, op. 5. In his music something of the fancy of the Elizabethan consort composers sticks long beyond its time; or perhaps this is because he observed how the English of his day still enjoyed the whimsical touch, through the Scarlatti enthusiasts (Avision, most prominently), not to mention Handel’s own Concerti Grossi. The London Handel Players do him right.

FANFARE: Barry Brenesal

GEMINIANI Violin sonatas, op. 4/1, 3, 6, 7, 10, 12 • Liana Mosca (vn); Antonio Mosca (vc); Luca Pianca (archlute); Giorgio Paronuzzi (hpd) (period instruments) • STRADIVARIUS 33853 (67:41)


William S. Newman, in his massive study of the Baroque sonata, listed Francesco Geminiani’s sonatas for violin and continuo (op. 1 from 1716 and op. 4 from two decades later) and for violin and cello (op. 5) and judged Geminiani’s knowledge of the violin to equal that of Giuseppe Tartini or Pietro Locatelli (the latter of whom, like Geminiani, had been a pupil of Arcangelo Corelli, though a more technically adventurous one), but considered his style to be more conservative. Of the six sonatas presented by Liana Mosca, Antonio Mosca (her father), Luca Pianca, and Georgio Paronuzzi, all but two consist of four movements (the others numbering three); none of the movements’ titles give a hint of their dance-like elements or rondo forms. Almost all the sonatas have been cast in major keys. Geminiani would later rework six of the 12 sonatas of op. 4 (including No. 1 and No. 7 from Stradivarius’s collection) as concerti grossi. While Mosca remarks in a personal note in the booklet that Geminani’s sonatas from op. 4 haven’t received a great deal of attention, Rüdiger Lotter included the First, Eighth, Ninth, and 10th (two from Mosca’s selection) in a program released on Oehms 356 that also included several sonatas from Antonio Maria Veracini’s op. 1 ( Fanfare 29:1).


Geminiani revised the sonatas of his op. 1 at about the same time as he published op. 4 and included in the new edition of op. 1 the kinds of ornaments that make so striking an impression in Mosca’s performance of op. 4, as in the First Sonata’s Adagio (and also that of the Third Sonata). In that movement, she also displays a rhythmic and dynamic flexibility to create a capricious expressive sensibility that apparently suits not only the works themselves but Geminiani’s reputation as an expressive performer (among some: Tartini called him il furibondo , while John Hawkins thought he lacked the fire of the later violinists of his era). The sonata’s second movement isn’t fugal; it depends for its effect on the piquancy of its homophonic lines, of which Mosca gives a tangy account. The continuo provides an ingratiating strumming accompaniment in the Largo, a backdrop against which Mosca makes at times startling adjustments to the solo’s dynamic level; the finale includes surprises after dramatic pauses, and Mosca times them with the acute sensibility of a persuasive rhetorician. In general, she produces a twangy though by no means sharp-edged tone from her violin (and a perhaps surprisingly full one from its lower registers), described as a Venetian instrument from about 1750.


Mosca and the ensemble bring vivacious wit to the second movement of the Seventh Sonata and its jaunty subject (do these suggest the stolidity for which Geminiani has sometimes been condemned?) and spice to the ornamentation of the sonata’s third movement, Moderato. The Adagio of the Third Sonata showcases, as well as the encrustations of ornamentation mentioned earlier, the sudden gestures that make the sonatas sound inventive, at least from an expressive point of view (that sense of invention, continues, reaching almost to the level of improvisation, in the ensuing Allegro). The Sixth Sonata, again in D Major, at first seems almost somber compared to the three that precede it on the program, until Mosca dispels whatever gloom might have enshrouded it with her bright gaiety in the second movement; similarly, she shifts from the almost romantic sensibility of the sonata’s Andante to crisp Gallic sprightliness (Geminiani spent time in Paris) in the final movement, recalling a similar vein in the works of Jean-Marie Leclair (also a musical descendent of Corelli, this time through Giovanni Battista Somis). The two three-movement sonatas omit the slow movement; what they lose in affetuoso they gain in starchiness (although the last Allegro of the 10th Sonata includes a slow episode that almost replaces the missing movement). A multisectional fantasy serves as the first movement of the 12th Sonata’s three.


Lotter deploys a more astringent tone in his recording but he hardly stints on ornamental or expressive detail. Still, Mosca’s unaffected geniality, dramatic Luftpausen , and rhetorical sensibility breathe extra life into her performances.


With its clean recorded sound, its imaginative performances, and its ingratiating literature, Mosca’s selection of Geminiani’s sonatas might serve either as a favorable introduction to the works of the composer for those who aren’t familiar with him or an enjoyable reminder for those who know him that he brought more than Corelli’s teachings to London. Strongly recommended to all types of listeners.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham

The musicians featured on this new release write: “For some years now we have been interested in the experiments of composers on the frontiers of Baroque musical language. The music of the sons of Bach and especially of Carl Philipp Emanuel has already come to fascinate us, and we had the same urge to discover and let ourselves be surprised when we decided to tackle Geminiani. To immerse ourselves in his op.7 was an exciting process, questioning our experience of Baroque music and rousing the enthusiasm of all the musicians of Café Zimmermann.” (Celine Frisch, harpsichord) “WHAT?!” was the first stunned reaction of the musicians after reading through Geminiani’s Concertos op.7. A composition that is invariably controversial, at once surprising and familiar. Then it was a new discovery with each concerto, with different textures and styles from one movement to the other. This music led us along unexpected paths from the church to the theatre, from Italy to France, from the seventeenth century to the eighteenth.” (Pablo Valetti, violin) “Geminiani’s music reflects my state of mind, one foot in the seventeenth century and the other in the eighteenth. The rhetoric and architecture it employs are still compatible with the Baroque. But the choice and exploration of emotions are already very new, similar to the way we feel today. This state of inner contradiction was probably not always understood by Geminiani’s contemporaries, but it is exactly what we look for and admire nowadays.” (Petr Skalka, cello)

Virtuoso baroque-era violinist Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762) transcribed for string orchestra Arcangelo Corelli’s celebrated sonatas for violin, op. 5. One of the finest baroque ensembles in the world, the Ensemble 415’s full, dense sonority is ideally suited to this music’s sublime intensity. The ensemble, led by its founder Chiara Banchini, regularly presents some of the great masterworks of Boccherini, Mozart and composers from the Italian Baroque.

Classical Music

Igor Ruhadze’s Brilliant Classics recording of sonatas by Locatelli (94736) won warm praise from Gramophone. ‘The playing is elegantly supple, the string tone warm, and the architecture of individual movements thoughtfully worked out. All this makes for a pleasant mood and enjoyable listening. The more exuberant pieces are brilliantly and at times breathtakingly performed.’ With his latest Brilliant Classics album, the Russian Baroque-specialist violinist and director turns to another pivotal figure in Baroque-era violin culture, Francesco Geminiani.

Taught first by his violinist father and then by both Corelli and Alessandro Scarlatti in Rome, Geminiani was already a leading figure in north Italian courts in his 20s, before he undertook the move to London that made his name and fortune. Geminiani dedicated the Op.1 Sonatas (1716) to Baron Johann Adolf Kielmansegge, his first London patron. According to Hawkins, Kielmansegge favored the composer by arranging a performance before the king in which Geminiani was accompanied on the harpsichord by Handel. With these sonatas, which clearly stem from Corelli, Geminiani presented himself to the public as Corelli's pupil. Many imitation editions followed the first printing, but the commentator Charles Burney maintained that only the composer himself could do them full justice. Apparently designed as a calling card for Geminiani’s talents as a violinist-composer, the Op.1 Sonatas still make strenuous technical but also expressive demands on any interpreter. Their genteel surface and polished dialogue between parts conceals an array of sophisticated contrasts between moods and demonstration of a violinist’s credentials as an artist as well as a technician.

For this new recording, Igor Ruhadze is joined not by his colleagues in the Violini Capricciosi ensemble but the Russian-born harpsichordist Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya. Having pursued graduate studies with early-music luminaries such as Richard Egarr and Menno van Delft, she too evinces intense sympathy with Geminiani’s idiom.

GEMINIANI: CONCERTI GROSSI LA

Among the numerous musical works by Francesco Geminiani, renowned virtuoso, theorist and versatile composer, the transcriptions for harpsichord are practically unknown. They were transcribed from his own instrumental compositions: Concerti Grossi, Sonatas for Violin and Bass, Sonatas for Cello and Bass as well as Metodi for Violin and for Guitar. This harpsichord production usually escapes the musical writers and critics who deal with this musicial but always in a fragmentary form. Geminiani is rarely mentioned and if so, it's hurried and superficial. The 1762 compositions here are collected into short suites formed of sonata movements originally intended for strings or guitar, they are characterized by a great variety of forms and facets, they range from serious compositions to movements typical of the Baroque sonata.

Classical Music

The musical production of Francesco Saverio Geminiani is totally focused on instrumental music, and includes two collections of violin sonatas, one of cello sonatas, three of concerti grossi, two of Pièces de Clavecin, and a series of transcriptions and revisions of works by other important Italian composers such as Arcangelo Corelli and Francesco Mancini. Geminiani was very active as a treatise writer: he published no less than six works, among which the one that stands out is The art of playing on the violin, published in 1751 and still regarded as the most important violin treatise of that period, together with that of Leopold Mozart from 1756. The treatise became quite famous at once, and was much used by the composer’s contemporaries; several versions of it were published up to 1790, with English and French editions, reaching the New World. The composer’s only digression from his customary work consisted of La Forêt enchantée, a theatrical pantomime meant to be performed by mimes and dancers on expressly-composed music; it had been inspired by Canti xiii and xviii of Gerusalemme liberata, by Torquato Tasso (1544-1595). The version drawn up by Claudio Valenti – who devised the dramatic part together with the actor Piero Nannini – seeks out and re-creates the prosodic relationship between the text and the music that constitutes the core of the composer’s inspiration in his reading of Tasso’s text. For this reason, the work is presented not only in its version for string instruments alone, with the addition of a single flute, but has also been stripped of its orchestral repetitions (all of them), so as to outline an instrumental structure that is transparent, but able to catch and amplify the expressive peculiarities of the score in relation to the text, achieving a novel sort of representative madrigal.