FRANCESCO MARIA VERACINI: Sonata No. 1 from Sonatas for solo violin and basso continuo Op. 1; Sonata No. 5 from Sonatas for violin, flute and basso continuo; Sonata No. 1 from “Dissertations on the Works of Corelli;” Sonata No. 6 from Academic Sonatas Op. 2 – John Holloway, violin/Jaap ter Linden, cello/ Lars Ulrik Mortensen, harpsichord – ECM
New Series 1889, 61:46 ****:In his notes to the CD violinist Holloway calls Veracini of the
greatest of the violinist-composers in musical history – on a par with
Biber, Ysaye and Bach. His playing once so impressed the great
violinist Tartini that he retired from public performance for awhile to
practice harder. Veracini was known to have an eccentric
personality but he was in great demand as a violinist. Like many
Italian musicians of the period he traveled north to serve royalty in
other areas. His Op. 1 collection of sonatas was written while he
was in the service of the Crown Prince in Dresden. Corelli was
the model for most of his violin works, and he used the same
five-movement structure as did his Italian predecessor. In his
Dissertations collection he even mentions Corelli in the title.
These sonatas emphasize the contrapuntal aspects of the music, often
eschewing ornamentation entirely to focus more strongly on the
counterpoint.
New Series 1889, 61:46 ****:In his notes to the CD violinist Holloway calls Veracini of the
greatest of the violinist-composers in musical history – on a par with
Biber, Ysaye and Bach. His playing once so impressed the great
violinist Tartini that he retired from public performance for awhile to
practice harder. Veracini was known to have an eccentric
personality but he was in great demand as a violinist. Like many
Italian musicians of the period he traveled north to serve royalty in
other areas. His Op. 1 collection of sonatas was written while he
was in the service of the Crown Prince in Dresden. Corelli was
the model for most of his violin works, and he used the same
five-movement structure as did his Italian predecessor. In his
Dissertations collection he even mentions Corelli in the title.
These sonatas emphasize the contrapuntal aspects of the music, often
eschewing ornamentation entirely to focus more strongly on the
counterpoint.
Holloway’s tone is rich and not at all steely; I presume he plays a
modern violin rather than a Baroque instrument, and although this is a
standard 44.1 CD the steely violin timbre often heard with the
lower-resolution format is not in evidence here.
– John Sunier
