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Tomaso Albinoni's 12 Trio sonatas Op. 1 receive their premiere recordings on CD on this new specially priced CPO issue. For the most part they are highly spirited works similar in style to that of Albinoni's contemporaries Antonio Vivaldi and Francesco Veracini--though more indebted to the old master of this form, Arcangelo Corelli. However, even listeners with a passing familiarity with this composer will recognize some unique Albinonian qualities. For example, the opening movement of trio sonata No. 6, marked "Grave", moves with an elegance unmistakably characteristic of the composer of the famous Adagio.

The ever-reliable German original instrument ensemble Parnassi Musici (whose recording of Dominico Gallo's trio sonatas for CPO was one of last year's great surprises) performs these minor masterpieces beautifully. CPO's sound is exemplary and the set includes informative historical notes. Albinoni fans will need no encouragement; others looking for a collection of Italian Baroque trio sonatas that rank with the best would do well to consider this offering.
--John Greene, ClassicsToday.com

Albinoni's Op. 5 set of concertos provides fine examples of the composer's concise, lyrical style--all of it more musically interesting than the ubiquitous Adagio in G. The set also is notable for the rare feature of two separate viola parts, resulting in a configuration of Violin I, Violin II, Viola I, Viola II, and basso continuo. While the music is mostly in the standard mold of the Baroque string concerto, some of the pieces feature rather extended solo passages. Simon Standage displays his usual high musical standards in the Concerto No. 2, and his playing is especially beautiful in the solo lines of the lovely Adagio of the Concerto No. 5. There is even a cello solo turn in the very pretty Adagio of No. 11.

Collegium Musicum 90 remains one of the world's top period bands. Passage-work in the violins moves cleanly and without weight; chord changes are never over-stressed in the continuo, and overall ensemble balance is excellent. Standage gets his group to produce some fine dynamic shadings, and Chandos' engineering is near-perfect. Sure, there are some occasional rough spots, like the start of the Presto tutti statement in the second movement of Concerto No. 3, but the energy of the performance more than makes up for that. Individual players within the sections don't always agree on intonation, but it doesn't take much away from the overall enjoyment of this disc. Warmly recommended.
--David Preiser, ClassicsToday.com

Recorded in: All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London 6, 8 & 9 January 1996 Producer(s) Nicholas Anderson Sound Engineer(s) Ben Connellan Jonathan Cooper (Assistant) Richard Smoker (Assistant)

In this latest recording of works by Albinoni, Simon Standage directs Collegium Musicum 90 showcasing the rarely performed and recorded Op. 10 Concertos. As late as 1961, academics were unaware of Albinoni's last set of concertos. All this changed when two small private collections were found to contain the print. Since then, the existence of Op.10 has been known to scholars, but awareness of it and curiosity about it has not really penetrated. Most of the Op.10 concertos have not been published in a modern edition, and the set has been recorded only twice before. The dedicatee of Op. 10 was the Marquis of Castelar, Don Luca Fernando Patiño, who had come to Italy from Spain as a military commander. As a result, the Op.10 concertos are highly individual. If one looks at the melodic lines in isolation, they look full modern for the 1730s, but if one looks at the bass line they go right back to the time of Albinoni's Op.2 and Op.5. Albinoni alludes to the dedicatee in the music itself: the first movement of Concerto 11 is a vivid evocation of flamenco style, with all itsfierce percussiveness. Note writer Michael Talbot describes the concertos as 'undoubtedly 'odd' in the fact that they are wildly different from what one expects from any composer working in the 1730s, but they are also beautiful in a way absolutely peculiar to their composer and in a way a logical conclusion of his art.' Simon Standage performs regularly with Collegium Musicum 90 and other groups and is a very well respected performer in the early-music field.

After the success of the Red, Yellow, Blue and Pink collections (a total of 56 reissues), which brought the pearls from the Baroque catalogues of the house labels back into the spotlight, here are fourteen new titles offering a chance to rediscover more Baroque treasures and rarities. Like the last series, this fifth installment also opens up to the Classical (Mozart) or Renaissance (Dufay) repertories - recordings that are an integral part of Alpha's identity and history. This series' reissues are performed by the finest musicians in the field; most of these recordings received one or more awards on their first release. The albums come with proper booklets, including notes in three languages (French, English, German). Photographers from many different backgrounds illustrate the covers of the series with their works: this time the main theme is the color white. The present album features Albinoni's Sinfonie A Cinque, Op. 2, performed by Ensemble 415 and Chiara Banchini.

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Includes work(s) for ob and org by various composers. Ensemble: Norrköping Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Gordon Hunt. Soloists: Gordon Hunt, Leslie Pearson.

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The Trattenimenti Armonici per Camera, Divisi in Dodici Sonate a Violino e Cembalo, Op. 6 were printed in Amsterdam by Estienne Roger and Le Cene. The twelve chamber sonatas, composed originally for violin, bass viol and harpsichord all have the same, four-movement structure based on the traditional adagio-allegro-adagio-allegro form. This CD contains six of the twelve sonatas that make up the Trattenimenti performed by recorder with harpsichord, lute and cello accompaniment. The decision to entrust the solo part to the recorder, in apparent contradiction to what the composer himself indicated in the frontispiece, is actually fully-justified by eighteenth-century performance practice. The melodic elegance, harmonic equilibrium and geometric structure created by Albinoni make these sonatas a veritable gem of inestimable worth whose beauty we have striven to offer in one of it's innumerable facets.

Tomaso Albinoni was one of the most respected composers of his time, despite being not a professional composer but rather a dilettante, as he called himself. The largest part of his oeuvre consists of music for the theatre. Unfortunately almost none of his compositions in this genre has been preserved complete. Most of his operas are lost; of others only a few arias have come down to us.

Therefore today he is mainly known for his instrumental music. His concertos with parts for one or two oboes are quite popular and are regularly played at concerts and recorded. He also wrote a considerable number of sonatas for one or two violins and bc. Several of his collections of sonatas have been recorded. One of these comprises twelve for violin and basso continuo which were printed as his op. 6 in Amsterdam around 1712. The title is Trattenimenti armonici per camera. The word trattenimento means 'entertainment' and indicates that these sonatas were intended for the growing market of amateur performers. The addition da camera suggests that these sonatas follow the model of the Corellian sonata da camera. It may then come as a surprise that the movements bear not the titles of dances, as was common in sonate da camera, but rather indications such as adagio or allegro as was usual in the sonata da chiesa. However, these are dances in disguise: many fast movements are in fact allemandes, courantes or gigues.

The title of this disc suggests that we have here six flute sonatas, but that is not quite correct. Albinoni didn't give any indication that his sonatas could be played on the transverse flute. That doesn't mean that he didn't approve of adapting these sonatas for other instruments. This was common practice and composers expected performers to adapt their sonatas for their own use, depending on the instruments that were at hand. In his liner-notes Mario Folena mentions that several sets of such adaptations are known from Albinoni's time. In this recording he didn't make use of any of these editions. Rather he constructed his own arrangements. Such arrangements sometimes require transpositions to another key. In this recording all but one sonata are played in the original keys. The exception is the Sonata No. 2 which is in G minor, but originally in D major. I am a bit surprised by that, since there was apparently no need to transpose the Sonata No. 7 which is also in D major.

Obviously some of the effects Albinoni included in his sonatas are lost in these arrangements. That particularly concerns Albinoni's use of double-stopping. That is, for instance, the case in the fast movements from the Sonata No. 9. In his liner-notes to The Locatelli Trio's recording of the complete set (Hyperion, 1992) Michael Talbot writes about the Sonata No. 8: "[The] rasping violin chords in its second movement convey a mood of desperate urgency." That can't be conveyed in a performance with transverse flute. The passages of a contrapuntal character remain fully intact, though.

However, in these new clothes, as it were, these sonatas make a very good impression as well. Some of the features of the original scoring may have gone lost, the natural sensitivity and differentiation in colour and dynamics of the transverse flute fit them very well. Mario Folena is an excellent performer who plays with intelligence and stylistic awareness. He is supported by a strong basso continuo group which shows a good sense of the rhythmic pulse of these sonatas. The first allegro from the Sonata No. 6 is a particularly good example.

Even if you have a performance with violin in your collection, for instance the recording by The Locatelli Trio, this disc has much to offer and will give you a new and different look at these beautiful sonatas.

– MusicWeb International (Johan van Veen)

ALBINONI: Oboe Concertos, Vol. 2

ALBINONI: Oboe Concertos, Vol. 3

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