Search - Giuseppe Torelli, Giovanni Mossi, Giuseppe Valentini :: Concertos for 4 Violins

Some entertaining and obscure Baroque curiosities written fo

Mike Birman | Brooklyn, New York USA | 06/02/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Once again we find ourselves in the great Venetian Lagoon: as always the attraction of Venice is overpowering to weary travelers from the north who come seeking the slightly dangerous beauty of the 'Serenissima'. As the economic might of Venice began its long, slow decline in the 17th Century, the patricians and the doges began to deliberately spotlight the splendour of Venetian music performed for state, ceremonial and religous occasions. Approval spread quickly, admiration for this stylish music attracted young composers from Rome, from Florence, Milan, Bergamo and Naples. The dawning Venetian 18th Century, with its endless glittering carnivals, nearly year-round opera season and famous orchestras featuring lovely young orphan girls, drew nobility from everywhere, their fierce hunger for beauty never less than ravenous. The Venetian cultural magnet was in full force.



Arcangelo Corelli's concertos were, by the start of the 18th Century, the celebrated model of classical form and grace, and each of the five composers on this disc can be considered his pupil. Though most of these musicians plied their trade in Rome (Locatelli, Valentini, Mossi), often playing shoulder-to-shoulder in ensembles assembled by Roman nobility later made famous by the young Handel, their technical mastery flowed from a gaze locked on Venice. The Bolognese master Torelli exhibits an assured and skillful technique in his concerto, which is more formally strict. The Neapolitan Leo achieves an equilibrium between fugal and galant styles in his concerto. The three Romans make slightly fewer demands on the listener in their concertos, with their readily accessible content and engagingly popular style.



By listening closely, you can easily reach the conclusion that a kind of competition amongst the five composers is at play here. The use of 4 violins as solo instruments creates unique difficulties in balance, in technique, in timbre. The five are able to prove their technical mastery by avoiding parallel fifths, octaves or unisons. To my ear, at least, they all managed to steer clear of these sonic traps. These are not profound works, but they are very entertaining concertos, with a slightly generic feel to them. The music is beautifully played by Goebel's Musica Antiqua Koln in DGG's usually solid sound, recorded in 1991. In lieu of a booklet, notes are available online. There are no revelations here, just some musical fun, perfect for listening when you desire few demands on your attention span or level of concentration. In this music you will hear the first stirrings of the Classical serenade and the divertimento. No less a genius than Mozart composed dozens of beautiful pieces in these two genres, never feeling the music beneath him, always considering the mandate to entertain as noble as the one to enlighten. Taken in that light, this refreshing compilation, now released in a slim cardboard digi-pack as part of DGG's 'al fresco' series, is recommended.



Mike Birman"

Worth a listen

Ross Kennett | Narooma, NSW Australia | 03/24/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Concertos for 4 Violins



This is the sort of CD I tend to buy on spec; violin music written by lesser known Italian composers of the late 17th and early 18th century played by a top orchestra, Musica Antiqua Koln. The title is attractive, " concertos for 4 violins "; will I get some forgotten gems or music that is seldom played because it is not very good ?

The composers are Torelli, Mossi, Valentini, Locatelli and Leo; I am familiar with Torelli and Locatelli, have heard of Valentini and Leo, but not Mossi.

The result, as might be expected is a bit of both, the Torelli and the Locatelli are first class, the Mossi and Leo not bad, the Valentini, the longest work on the disc, disappointing. Too much of the Valentini, to my ears, is of 4 violins playing in unison, rather than different parts together. There are not many concertos for 4 violins in the repetoire, the four in Vivaldi's opus 3, L'estro armonico, come to mind, they outshine those on this CD. Bach and Telemann each wrote a superb concerto for 3 violins.

The performace is very good, as is the sound quality, I like the packaging in a cardboard box rather than the fragile jewel case, the cover notes are pathetic, but the price is modest. Worth a listen."

Fiddle Juggling

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 06/15/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Imagine four master jugglers spread across a stage, each one juggling five balls of brilliant colors. Then they spin around and start tossing the balls to each other back and forth prismatically. That's the effect of these show-off concerti for four virtuoso fiddlers, blazing away on their Baroque violins, tossing flurries of phrases back and forth above the steady ground of cello and viola. This music is meant to be heard spatially; unfortunately not all of the spatial effect can be appreciated in recording for standard stereo, and it's not possible to hear who's playing what or when. Otherwise, this is lean and mean fiddling, just what you'd expect from an ensemble led by Reinhard Goebel, the Chuck Norris of the violin. The Devil must be doing bonanza business in souls these years, in the city of Cologne.



People who turn to Baroque music for effervescent easy listening will be delighted by these five concerti by lesser-known Italian composers of the 18th Century. If your taste in music runs toward the profound and exalted, you'd better stay with Scarlatti, Bach, and Vivaldi's vocal cantatas. None of these five concerti is worthy of Vivaldi at his best, but all of them are artful and entertaining. My favorite is the Concerto in A minor By Giuseppe Valenti, consisting of five movements, of which the slowest is the most exuberant and the fastest the most somber. That's the kind of juggling that makes such music a joy to hear."