Composer: Francesco Geminiani
Performer: Igor Ruhadze, Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Brilliant Classics
Release: 2022
Size: 1.9 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Violin Sonata No. 1 in A Major, H.13
01. I. Adagio – Presto – Adagio – Presto – Adagio – Presto – Adagio
02. II. Allegro
03. III. Grave
04. IV. Allegro
Violin Sonata No. 2 in D Minor, H.14
05. I. Grave
06. II. Allegro
07. III. Adagio
08. IV. Allegro
Violin Sonata No. 3 in E Minor, H.15
09. I. Adagio – Allegro – Adagio – Tempo justo – Adagio
10. II. Adagio
11. III. Allegro
Violin Sonata No. 4 in D Major, H.16
12. I. Adagio
13. II. Allegro
14. III. Grave
15. IV. Allegro
Violin Sonata No. 5 in B-Flat Major, H.17
16. I. Affettuoso
17. II. Vivace
18. III. Grave
19. IV. Allegro
Violin Sonata No. 6 in G Minor, H.18
20. I. Affettuoso
21. II. Andante
22. III. Allegro assai
Violin Sonata No. 7 in C Minor, H.19
23. I. Grave
24. II. Allegro
25. III. Grave
26. IV. Allegro
Violin Sonata No. 8 in B Minor, H.20
27. I. Affettuoso
28. II. Vivace
29. III. Adagio
30. IV. Vivace
Violin Sonata No. 9 in F Major, H.21
31. I. Vivace
32. II. Andante
33. III. Allegro
Violin Sonata No. 10 in E Maor, H.22
34. I. Adagio
35. II. Allegro
36. III. Adagio
37. IV. Allegro
Violin Sonata No. 11 in A Minor, H.23
38. I. Vivace
39. II. Affettuoso
40. III. Allegro
Violin Sonata No. 12 in D Minor, H.24
41. I. Amoroso – Adagio
42. II. Allegro – Adagio
43. III. Allegro
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 Dutch (Soviet Unian born) 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 favoured 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.