Giuseppe Tartini: The Violin Concertos, Vol. 17

$24.99
Added to Cart! View cart or continue shopping.


TARTINI Violin Concertos: in a, D 114 1; in D, D 25 2; in B?, D 121 1; in D , D 36 3; in C, D 11 2; in E , D 51 2; in D , D 32 1; in A, D 98 3; in D, D 37 2; in G , D 80 3; in C, D 6 2 • 1 Federico Guglielmo (vn); 2 Carlo Lazari (vn); 3 Giovanni Guglielmo (vn); dir; L’Arte dell’arco (period instruments) • DYNAMIC 678 1/2 (2 CDs: 126:17)


Volume 17 brings to an end Dynamic’s series devoted to Giuseppe Tartini’s violin concertos. Giovanni and Federico Guglielmo and Carl Lazari again serve as the soloists on period instruments, with L’Arte dell’arco. They’ve adopted some procedures to bring order to the project. Since this will probably be the last time I have the opportunity to work with these releases, I’d like to repeat briefly their work rules, as stated by their harpsichord player and fellow transcriber, Nicola Reniero. They’ve taken the liberty of filling in what’s missing from Tartini’s manuscripts; they’ve left the choice of alternate solo parts to the soloists; they’ve allowed tempos to vary, generally speeding up in tuttis and playing solos freely; they’ve taken ornamentation from Tartini’s own suggestions and treatise; they’ve composed cadenzas when ones by the composer weren’t available; and they’ve adopted A=442, which they think represents a practice current in Tartini’s time and in the area in which he worked. Danilo Prefumo’s notes identify all the concertos as having come from Tartini’s second period, roughly from 1735. Soloists and ensemble recorded the first CD in September 2009 and the second in August 2010, both in Studio Magister.


Federico Guglielmo serves as the soloist in the Concerto, D 114, in which Prefumo notes the occasional influence of Antonio Vivaldi. But the lyrical tuttis and the spiky solo passagework in the first movement seem Tartini’s own. Guglielmo brings a sensitive nuance to the slow movement that makes it seem to surpass in expressivity even Vivaldi’s generally smooth cantabile. The technical demands of the Finale, especially its double-stops, also go beyond what Vivaldi required, not so much in extent but in kind. After a brilliant and almost impudent opening movement (featuring Carlo Lazari), D 25 features a sweet-tempered Largo that the composer provided with a motto: “La mia Filli….” Federico Guglielmo proves to be a jaunty soloist in the opening movement of D 124, which looks forward in style, resembling in its rhythmic strut the opening movement of Joseph Haydn’s Violin Concerto in C Major, and the ensemble provides plenty of bounce in the Finale. Giovanni Guglielmo serves as the soloist in D 36, playing with ease the double-stopped passagework in the first movement and with nuanced sensitivity in the Larghetto . Prefumo identifies the march-like rhythms of D 11 as Milanese; Carlo Lazari returns as soloist, playing with gem-like brilliance in the Finale. Prefumo also suggests a reminiscence of Vivaldi in D 51; but, again, in Lazari’s piquant reading, the first movement seems worlds in advance of earlier works by Vivaldi, if not of his later ones, which exude a different atmosphere. The slow movement bears an inscription, “Tortorelli bacie…,” but if the extra-musical allusion isn’t perfectly clear, the movement’s pure lyricism in Lazari’s reading requires no explanation.


The second CD begins with D 32, with Federico Guglielmo as soloist. Nicholas Reniero makes the organ continuo effervesce in the first movement’s otherwise stately tuttis; Guglielmo points the last movement’s technical passages with rhythmic élan and silvery tonal command. D 98 also brings a slow movement with a motto, this time “Stagion bella....” Giovanni Guglielmo makes a great deal of the contrast of the first movement’s elegant tuttis and the dancing solos. Carlo Lazari takes over as soloist in D 37, with easy elegance in the last movement, which Prefumo likens to the pastoral movements of contemporary Christmas concertos. D 80 appeared in one of the sources with two slow movements, and Giovanni Guglielmo plays both, the Grave characterized by Prefumo as old-fashioned tacked on at the end (even after hearing only the Andante included in the Concerto’s performance and sensing Guglielmo’s affinity for it, most listeners should understand why he chose to put it in its place in the Concerto). Guglielmo seems particularly brilliant in the first movement, so the work provides him two opportunities for display of two very different manners of expression. Carlo Lazari takes the stage last in D 6, in which he buffs a high gloss on the first movement’s passagework and plays affectingly in the Largo andante.


All lovers of the violin and its colorful history should be grateful to the Guglielmos, Lazari, and Dynamic for this series, so energetically played and featuring such clear and, at the same time, reverberant recorded sound—and such informative notes. This monument should stand for all time and be a part of every aficionado’s library. Urgently recommended as a whole and in its parts, including this one. A standing ovation for the impossible dream so stunningly made real.


FANFARE: Robert Maxham


Product Description:

  • Release Date: October 29, 2013


  • Catalog Number: DYN-CDS678


  • UPC: 8007144606787


  • Label: Dynamic


  • Number of Discs: 2


  • Composer: Giuseppe Tartini


  • Orchestra/Ensemble: L'Arte dell'Arco


  • Performer: Carlo Lazari, Federico Guglielmo, Giovanni Guglielmo