Performing Corelli's Opus 5 Peter Walls EM 1996

7/25/2019 Performing Corelli's Opus 5 Peter Walls EM 1996

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/performing-corellis-opus-5-peter-walls-em-1996 1/9

Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Early Music.

http://www.jstor.org

Performing Corelli's Violin Sonatas, op.5

Author(s): Peter WallsSource: Early Music, Vol. 24, No. 1, Music in Purcell's London II (Feb., 1996), pp. 133-138+141-142

Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3128454Accessed: 23-01-2016 23:43 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of contentin a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

This content downloaded from 90.48.197.33 on Sat, 23 Jan 2016 23:43:49 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/

http://www.jstor.org/publisher/oup

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3128454

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp






http://www.jstor.org/stable/3128454

http://www.jstor.org/publisher/oup

http://www.jstor.org/



PeterWalls

Performing

Corelli's

Violin Sonatas,

op.5

ithin

months of their

publication

in

1700

Corelli's

Sonate a

vio-

lino

e

violone

o

cimbalohad been

acceptedby

the musical

world

as

having

a

special

status.

No other collection

of sonatas

for solo

instru-

ment

was to

be so studied and imitated.

Corelli's

contemporaries

aw

his

compositions

as

having

an

exemplary

character.

Roger

North

exclaimedthat

'the

touchstone

of

fugue

is Corelli'

(and

he found

the

slow movements

even more

satisfying);

much

later Sir John

Hawkins

reported

that

'Men

remembered,

and would refer

to

passages

in

[Corelli's

music]

as to a classic author'.'

The influence

of this

'nuovo

Orfeo dei nostri giorni',this 'famosissimoprofessoredi violino' upon

performers

was also

unparalleled.

Roger

North

(again)

observed

that

'divers

young gentlemen

[travelled]

nto

Italy,

and after

having

earnt

of

the best

violin

masters,

particularly

Corelli,

returned

with

flourishing

hands;

and

for their delicate

contour

of

graces

n the

slow

parts,

and

the

'stoccata,

and

spirit

in

other

kinds

of

movements,

they

were

admired

and

imitated'.3

The

op.5

sonatas

n

particular

ame

to be

regarded

as

the

hallmark

of a

performer's

musicianship

and

skill.

In the

early

years

of

the

18th

century

to announce

that a

concert

would

include 'one

of

Corelli'sSolo's

by

an

extraordinary

Hand'

(or

some

such

phrase)

seems

to have

been a sure-fire

way

of

attracting

an audience.4

Tartini's

advice

to Maddalena

Lombardini

o

practise

an

op.5 Allegro

daily

is evidence

of the

way

theseworksremainedat the headof the violinist'scanon.5

But

violinists

could

not

keep

these sonatasto themselves.

Hard on

the heels

of the

original

Roman

edition,

arrangements

were

published

for

recorder

'with

the

approbation

of severaleminent

masters'),

harp-

sichord

and viola da

gamba.6 Op.5

was,

however,

spared

the

indignity

suffered

by

other

Corelli works

of

appearing

in

vocal

arrangements

with

such titles as

Moggy

and

Jenny

and

Oh the dismall

ate of

Fanny.)7

Non-violinists made

their own

manuscript

arrangements

or

adapted

standard

editions

of

op.5

for

their

own

ends-the owner

of the Turn-

bull

Library opy

of

the

Walsh

1711

dition sketched

n

how to avoid the

Peter

Walls

s

ProfessorfMusic

t

the

violinisticleaps in the

Allemandaof

Sonatano.8

(see illus.1).

Victoria

Universityof Wellington.

He

plays heBaroque iolinand s musical These sonatas (unlike so much Baroque repertory) never completely

director

f

two

early

music nsemblesn

disappeared

from

sight;

but

among period-instrument performers

of

New Zealand-the

BaroquePlayers

and

the

past

two decades

they

have

regained

their

original

status as conrer-

the Tudor

Consort.He has written

stones of

violinists'

development-something to be mastered on the

extensivelyon

performance

racticend

way to

the

Bach

unaccompanied

sonatas

and

partitas.

The

explosion

courtly

masque,

604-1640

(Oxford,

of editions

of Corelli's

op.5

in the

18th

century

is

matched

in our

time

1995).

by

the

extraordinary

number of

recordings.

The roll-call

of

Baroque

EARLY MUSIC

FEBRUARY

1996 133






019

9?9

~~il~?~i56'

Zt

~

1B

IZWI I

W?

?l ,I

, I I "1 f 1

76

'-

a

1 41;

ii

R

I'm?~w xli~

1

Sonata o.8 from

Corelli,

XIISonatas

op.

51

(London,

s.d.)

(Wellington,

NZ,

Alexander

Turnbull

Library,

Special

rinted

Collections)

violinists who have released

at least

some

of these

sonatas

includes

SigiswaldKuijken,Lucy

van

Dael,

ChiaraBanchini,Monica

Huggett,

CatherineMack-

intosh

and

ElizabethWallfisch.These

recordings-

especially

he

complete

op.5

sets-invite a case

study

in

performancepractice.8

But it

has not been violinists

only

who have been

drawn

to these seminal works. There are

currently

availableCDs

featuring arrangements

or

trumpet,

recorder and viola da

gamba-not

to mention

the

countless sets of variations on

La

Folia which

pro-

claim it

to

be a theme of

Corelli's.Recorder

players

are

especially

well

represented

in the

catalogues.

Brtiggen,who has made

various

recordings

over the

years

of sonatas

from

op.5,

has

a

CD of

part

2

(the

Sonate da

camera).

(In

his liner

note he

points

out

that he

has not shied

away

from

leaps

of the kind

which

troubledthe owner

of the

copy reproduced

n

illus.i.)9

Like

Briiggen,

Conrad

Steinmann makes

use in his

(various)

recordings

of

sonatasfrom

part 1

of

the

'proper graces by

an eminent

Master' for

Sonata

no.4,

which

appeared

in the

Walsh/Hare

publication

A

Second Collection

of

Sonatas

or

two

Flutes and a Bass

(London, 1707-the

edition now

known as 'Pez

anonymous').

A

Purcell

Quartet

disc

includes-alongside

Sonata

no.3

from Catherine

Mackintoshand the Folia variations

from

Elizabeth

Wallfisch-a

splendid

performance

from Richard

Boothby

of

the viola da

gamba transcription

of

Sonatano.ii.

Leaving

aside those

performances

which show

little

historical awareness

(or

worse,

spurn

it),

Corelli

recordingspresent

a

fascinatingrange

of so-

lutions

to the

questions every performer

must con-

front.

The

title of the

op.5

collection-Sonate a vio-

lino e violono

cimbalo-poses

a few

to

begin

with. In

practice,

of

course,

convenience and realism dictate

that performers choose what in computerese is

known as the default

option.'0

This is most obvious

with the choice of

instruments hemselves.

Without

unlimited

resources,

violinists can

scarcely get

too

scrupulous

about

exactly

what kind of violin Corelli

would

have

most

favoured

(though Kuijken's

beau-

tiful

1700

Grancino

must come

pretty

close to

being

the dream nstrumentfor these

works).

It is difficult

to comment

directly

on bows since none of the

re-

cordings gives specifications.

One of the

ironies of

the modern

scrupulousness

about

documenting

what instruments

have been used on historical-

instrument

recordings

is that bows continue to be

treated as

apparently

ess

important

accessories.Yet

they

have a much more direct

impact

on articulation

and

phrasing

than the

violins whose

pedigrees

are

listed. The reasons for this situation are obvious:

makers

cannot be named

since,

until

very

late in the

18th

century, they

did

not

identify

their own

work,

and we have

not

managed

o

develop

a standard

way

of

describing

or

even of

dating

with

any precision)

the

many

different

kinds of

pre-Tourte

bow. These

difficultiesmean

that,

for the

record

buyer,

histori-

cal

attitudesto bows as replaceableaccessories end

implicitly

o be

reinforced.

The

allocation of the bass

line to 'violone o cim-

balo'

('a

Bass Violin or

Harpsichord'

as the

1711

Walsh edition has

it)

poses

more

interesting

ques-

tions.

Violone is used in the

17th-century

Italian

sense as the bass member of the violin

family;

the

134

EARLY MUSIC

FEBRUARY

1996






very

active

bass line in movements

like the

Fugue

of

Sonata

no.4,

the

first

Allegro

of Sonata

no.11,

or

the

final

section of the Folia variationsmake it

reason-

able,

nevertheless,

o treat violonehere as a

synonym

for

violoncello-the

smaller and more mobile

ver-

sion

of

the

instrument.1

Indeed,

Corelli's

associate

G.

L. Lulier was known both as 'Giovannino

del

Violone'

and 'Giovannino

del

Violoncello'.12

t

is

nevertheless

nteresting

hat

every

available

record-

ing

lists

'violoncello'

(or

'Baroque

cello')

without

comment.

The

cimbalo

s

potentially

the most

dis-

tinctive

of

the

instruments-the

characteristically

tangy

sound of

an Italian

harpsichord

cannot

easily

be mistaken

for

one of its northern cousins. Both

Mitzi

Meyerson

(for

some of

the

sonatas)

and

Jesper

Christensen

use

Italian-style

harpsichords,

n the

lat-

ter case

one which

the

player

himself

copied

from

an

anonymous late 17th-century nstrument. On the

whole,

though,

the instruments chosen

(many

of

them

very

fine

in

themselves)

do not

project

a

strong

concern

with

serving

a

particular epertory.

Robert

Kohnen,

for

example, plays

a

1755

Dulcken on the

Kuijkenrecording.)

The most

challenging

word

in

the

op.5

title,

however,

is

'o'.

Generations

of

musicians have as-

sumed-and

(less often)

argued-that

it

should be

understood

as

meaning

'and/or'.'3

Increasingly,

however,

scholars

have

been

troubled

by

the

lack of

either

linguistic support

or

hard

historical evidence

for such an

interpretation.

Tharald

Borgir,

Sandra

Mangsen

and

Peter

Allsop

are

in

agreement

about

the

inappropriateness

f

applying

a

practice

recom-

mended

half

a

century

ater

by

C.

P. E. Bach to

17th-

century

Italian

repertory.14

While the

picture

is far

from

clear,

particularly

n

relationto solo

sonatas

from the

very

end

of the

century,

there is

neverthe-

less more

evidence for

taking

Corelli's

title-page

it-

erally

han

for

the

conventional

keyboard-plus-cello

solution.

Some

recordings

do

at least

explore

the

idea

of

a

single-instrument

bass

line. Banchini and Chris-

tensen

perform

Sonata

no.2

with

harpsichord

alone.

Trio

Sonnerie

likewise

use

harpsichord

in

Sonata

no.8,

and

they

follow this

with

solo cello

on

the

bass

line of

Sonata

no.9.

(Here

there are a

few

intonation

problems-untypical

of

this set as a

whole-which

illustrate he

extent

to

which

the harmonic

realiza-

tion

helps

cement the

tuning

of the outer

lines.)

While it is

positively

liberating

for

performers

to

realize

that bass lines do not

necessarily

mply

at

least

two

players,

t is hard at

present

to conceive

of

recording

all 12 sonatas with the

accompaniment

of

just

harpsichord

or cello. Such

a

project

might

seem

to

depend

on a mixtureof

pedantry

andcommercial

folly.

Recently,performers

and

('o' )

recording

com-

panies

have been

tending

towards

he other

extreme

of virtual

promiscuity

n their realizationof the

bass

line.

The earliest

period-instrument

versions-

Kuijken's

and

Lucy

van

Dael's

(the

latter

marred

by

wayward

intonation)-use

cello

plus harpsichord

throughout.

For the

six sonatasof

part

1

the

Locatelli

Trio use

cello and chamber

organ,

a combination

which for these sonate

da

chiesaseems both

appro-

priateand pleasing.It is interesting o comparethis

with the more varied choices on other

complete

re-

cordings.

The

Banchini/Christensen/Gohl

ersions

of

Sonatas

nos.1and 6 use

harpsichord,

archluteand

cello

(and

in

Sonata

no.3

harpsichord

and

archlute).

The

aim

seems to be for a

kaleidoscopic

effect-

though

personally

I

did

not

always

enjoy

the com-

peting

claims

of

simultaneous

ute

and

harpsichord

realizations

or

the

heterophony

set

up

by

conflicting

ornaments.

Trio Sonnerie

on the face

of it use

a

sim-

ilar

instrumentationwith

theorbo

instead of

arch-

lute;

but the

theorbo

(with

its

re-entrant

tuning

less

capable

of

providing

a full

realization)

s used to

give

better

definition

to the melodic bass

line.

Elsewhere

Trio Sonnerie do use an

archlute.

It

appears

in

Sonata

no.2,

where it is

treated

(quite

properly)

as

a

self-sufficient

continuo

instrument.

Nigel

North's

playing

is

beautifully

judged.

His

sound

matches

Monica

Huggett'svoluptuous

tone and

he

manages

to

give

her

plenty

of

space

for

the

improvisatory

gestures

of

the

(decorated)

violin

line.

Frangois

Raguenet

in

Parallle

des

Italiens

et

des

Francois

(1702)

makes

a

rather

vague

reference

o

hearing

Corelli,Pasquiniand Gaetaniplaytogether(though

clearly

n

a

larger

ensemble);

t

would

be

interesting

to know

just

how

these

two

distinguished

continuo

players

related o

each

other

and

to

the

soloist in

per-

formance.

The

sonatas of

part

2

produce

yet

more

continuo

combinations.

Trio Sonnerie

add

Baroque

guitar

to

EARLY

MUSIC

FEBRUARY

1996

135






iil-i,

:i-i'::::

i

;::;i

i ili-l::

::;i`::

i":-i:-:i

::

lii:

('::i

:::::;-i__ -li'::-'.i::_ i:jiiiji~:

~j-j.

-:j:

•

-:;-ii

i

-

li:::i:;:

i

?ii:?;,i:-:~i-:?-i_;

f

ii

?t

i i~~~~ii •iiiiiiiiii~~~~~~~i~~ii •~...........................................i

K1 F

?

i:•~i~ii

• 1-

'---.1-

\I ----;1

-

i:

ii~~ii~iii ii:

7,

1

Ic.

11,1

6~~

p~e~.

:~r

K".

2

Sonata

no.3,

third

movement,

Adagiofrom

Corelli,

XII

Sonatas

op.

51],

howing

decorations

Wellington,

New

Zealand,

lexander

urnbull

ibrary)

harpsichord

and cello for La Folia.The

guitar's

lam-

boyant rasgueado

helps

turn these variations into

'Folies

d'Espagne'.

The Accademia Bizantina com-

plete recording indulges

in the bizarre

practice

of

varying

he continuo instrumentation

or

repeats

n

binary

movements. The

concept

of

a

continuo

de-

partment

at work in

so

many

of these

performances

seems to have more to do with

Aggazzari

and the

early

17th

century

or

with

sumptuous

courtly

festivi-

ties like

Cesti's

IIpomrno

'oro han with

Corelli's

solo

violin

sonatas.This

kind of treatment

might

well

in-

crease he interestand

enjoyment

o be

derived

rom

listening through complete

recordings

of

op.5,

but

this

merely

emphasizes

hat

projects

of this kind are

essentiallydifferent,on the one hand,from the pro-

vision

of a

reliable

complete

edition

and,

on the

other,

from most historical

(or,

for

that

matter,

modern)

contexts for live

performance.

A relatedbut distinct

issue from that of bass line

instrumentation s the kind of

realizations

hey

re-

ceive.

It

is worth

noting

in

passing

that

the

1710

Roger

and

1711

Walsh

editions

of

op.5 give

even less

guidance

han most

engraved

onatas.

In all

the Ada-

gios

with added

graces

he

bass line

appears

tripped

of the

figures

which had been

engraved

n the

origi-

nal

edition.

While this

might

inadvertently

provide

encouragement

for

visualizing

these movements

with a solo

cello,

it is

I

suppose

unlikely

hat

this for-

mat has

any

particular mplications

for

the

perfor-

mance of

the

bass

line. The

simplest explanation

(suggested

to me

by

Neal

Zaslaw)

is

probably

that

Roger

engraved

undecoratedmovements from ear-

lier

editions

and

took

the

Adagios

rom

a

manuscript

lacking figures.

Most extant

copies

of these editions

have had

figures

added

by

userswho

sometimes sim-

ply copied them in from earlierundecorated edi-

tions,

but who

just

as

often worked hem out as

they

went

(with

subtly

different views

of

the

line's har-

monic

implications-see

illus.2-3).

Bass line realizations would

hardly

need com-

ment-since most of

the

performers

surveyed

here

provide support

for their violinists of a kind which

136

EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY

1996






seems

unerringly

asteful. But there is one wild

card

in the

pack.Jesper

Christensen's

pproach

o his role

as

a

harpsichord

continuo

player

is

arresting-and

he can

point

to

historical

justification

for much of

what he

does.15

His use

of saturated

chords

laden

with

acciacature

s,

on the face

of

it,

the sort of

thing

practised

by

Pasquini

and

approved

of

as

a 'full rich

style' by Gasparini.16

Christensen

precedes

the third

movement

(Adagio)

of Sonatano.2 with a

short

pre-

lude.

This sounds fine in

itself,

but-as the move-

ment

continues-the

activity

in

the

harpsichord

part

reduces

the violinist's freedom to be declama-

tory.

This

happens

time and time

again,

where

Christensen

adopts

a

more active

rhythm

than the

bass line

prescribes.

Christensen s the

only

harpsichordist

on

the re-

cordings surveyed

o

double the violin line where it

precedesthe entryof the bass in fugal movements.

Once

again

there

is

ample

historicalevidence for the

practice.7

The

effect is not

unpleasing

where it

gives

a

cleanly

etched

character

o

the

fugue subject.

What

is harder o

accept

is

Christensen's xtension of this

to solo violin

entries

in

adagio

movements

(the

opening

of

Sonata

no.2,

the third

movement

of

Sonata

no.3,

and the fourth movement of Sonata

no.6).

What he

plays

is the

plain

Corelli

original

against

he

graced

version contributed

by

the violin.

The result-to

my

ears

anyway-is

that the

harpsi-

chord

succeeds

only

in

subverting

he

improvisatory

sense of the solo

part.

In the second of the

examples

just

mentioned,

Luciano Contini

(playing

archlute)

incorporates

the

Roger graces

where the

bass line

imitates

the violin's

entry.

On the face

of

it,

these

musicians

display

more

awareness of

Baroque

sources than

their

colleagues

in other

ensembles--

yet

so much

of what

they

do

seems too obtrusiveand

succeeds n

hemming

in the violin.

Having

room to

move

is,

of

course,

vital in

slow

movements

where melodic

lines are

given

life

by

florid

improvisatory

ornamentation.

And

this,

of

course, brings

us to

the most celebrated

aspect

of

these

sonatas. How are

we to

regard

he

gracespur-

portedly by

Corelli

published

by

Estienne

Roger

in

1710

and

pirated

by

Walsh a

short time

afterwards)?

Roger'srepeated

assurancesof their

authenticity

are

the surest

indication that

many

of his

contempo-

raries

were

sceptical

about the

origin

of

the

graces.

ITS

iH

Ono

~

~i~,,,,,,~,,,

76

i::i?-ii-i:ii5~iw7:

ST

a~s~

.76

'I

3

Sonata

no.9,

opening,

from

Corelli,

XII

Sonatas

[op.

51

(Alexander

urnbull

ibrary)

Roger

North

voiced his

disbelief in a

characteristi-

cally strong

and colourful

way: 'Upon

the bareview

of

the

print

any

one would

wonder

how so much

vermin

could

creep

into the works of

such a mas-

ter."'

(Can

we be sure that

any

graces

would have

satisfied North?

Together

with

Charles

Burney

and

other

18th-century

ceptics,

he

may

have been

driven

by

a conviction that

Corelli's

compositions

had

more to do

with noble

harmony

than with

melodic

fantasy.)

For all that

the musical world

may

have found it

hard

to believe that

the

Roger

graces

were

indeed

'composezpar

Mr. A.

Corelli

comme il lesjoue', per-

formers have-in

practice-tended

to

accept

Roger's

claims. It is

striking

hat

alternative

ources

for written-out

op.5

embellishmentsare

more

plen-

tiful for the

sonatas of

part

2

than

for the first six

sonatas.

(Even

the

owner

of

the Turnbull

Library's

copy

of the

Walsh edition made one

ill-conceived

EARLY

MUSIC FEBRUARY

1996

137






attempt

at

dazzling

his

friends in

the

Preludio of

Sonata

no.11-see

illus.3.)

The

complete

recordings

of

op.5

follow a

similar

pattern:

ike those

who

wrote

out

embellishments in

the

18th

century,

modern

players

have

tended to

accord

the

Roger

edition

exemplary

tatus.

(The

only

exception-and

not one

likely

to

inspire

emulation-is

Chiarappa

on

the

Accademia

Bizantina

complete

set.)

Violinists

capa-

ble of

wonderfully tylistic

graces

n

Sonatas

nos.7-11

accept

the

Roger

edition for

Sonatas

nos.1-6. In a

way

this

ought

not

to

work,

since

all

written-out

gracespretend

to

be

a

snapshot

of

a

moment's

inspi-

ration.

The

conviction

with which

violinists

can sim-

ulate

improvisation

suggests

that-for

the

most

part-spontaneity

has

always

been

well

rehearsed.

Players

are

sometimes

prepared

to

venture out

beyond

the

Roger graces,

adding

further

embellish-

ments of their own. It is interesting, hough, to see

how in

passages

where the

Roger

version all but re-

treats

to the

original

line,

violinists seem

generally

reluctant o take

up

what

might

have been

seen as an

implicit

challenge.

At

bars

8-11

of

the first

movement

(Adagio)

of

Sonata

no.3,

Banchini,

Huggett,

Wall-

fisch

and

Kuijken

leave the

violin

line

essentially

bare. Catherine

Mackintosh alone

continues

in

the

vein of the

surrounding

lorid

writing. (Incidentally,

these bars

are decorated

in

the Pez

anonymous

print.)

An

even

more

striking

case comes in

bars

34-42

in

the third movement of this same

sonata,

where

virtually

all

performers

eave even the remi-

niscences of the

opening

motive

(heavily

orna-

mented the first two

times

it

occurs)

unadorned,

not

daring

o move out

beyond

the

suggestions

provided

by

the

Roger

edition.

The first

Adagio

of

Sonata

no.5

presents special

problems

since it-alone

among

the slow

move-

ments

in

the first

part

of

op.5-is

binary

with

repeat-

able halves.All violinists

reserve he

Rogergraces

or

the

repeat

and

play

the movement

virtually

straight

the first

time

through.

This

pattern

is

followed

throughwith the binarymovementsof part2. In a

way

this

establishes

a

totally

different

relationship

between the basic

line and

the

graced

version.

With

all the other slow movements

of

part1

the

implied

argument

is that the

original

line craves

embellish-

ment in the act of

performing

t;

the slow movement

of Sonata

no.5, however,

presents

the

line

as

self-

sufficient

but

amenable o

variation

on its

repeats.

Given the

adherence of

most

performers

to the

Roger graces

n

part

1,

the

inventivenesswith

which

they

treatthe sonatasof

part

2

is

especially

nterest-

ing.

The

complete recordingsby

Monica

Huggett

(Trio

Sonnerie)

and

Elizabeth

Wallfisch

(Locatelli

Trio)

make a

fascinating

comparison.

Both

players

are

capable

of

beautiful

eloquent

embellishment.In

Sonata

no.8 Monica

Huggett

produces

modestdeco-

ration for

the

repeats

of

the first

movement

(Prelu-

dio

Largo),

where

Elizabeth

Wallfisch

indulges

in

a

little more

virtuosity.

In

this

sonata's third

move-

ment

(Sarabanda

Largo),

however,

it

is

Wallfisch

who is

more

restrained,

while

Huggett

turns

out vir-

tuoso but tasteful

decoration. In

this latter

move-

ment,

the

walking

bass had

encouraged

Bruiggen

o

move up the tempo (atJ= 88,a good 20 ticksahead

of

Huggett

and

Wallfisch)

and to

play

the

upper

ine

completely

straight.

It is hard

to avoid

the conclusion that

violinists

have

been

learning

from

each other over

the

last

decadeor

so,

becoming

moreandmore

fluentin

the

art

of

gracing

Corelli. Even

Kuijken's

version

of

Sonata

no.ll

(the

only

part

2

sonata

apart

from

the

Folia variations

on his

disc)

seems

tongue-tied

alongside

the invention of Wallfisch

and

Huggett-

andhere I am not

just

referring

o the

extraordinary

cadential lourish the

latterviolinist

produces

in

the

brief

Adagio

beforethe third

movement.

TheLocatelliTrio's

recording

of Sonata

no.9

is

es-

peciallygenerous

and

informative.

They give

us

two

versions of the sonata. An

appendix,

as

it

were,

con-

tains Geminiani'sornamentedversion

(published

n

Hawkins's General

History

of

1776).

Wallfisch

gives

this a

convincing

and attractive

performance.

n

its

fast

movements

Geminiani's

renditioncomes

close

to the

kind

of

recomposition

which characterizes

he

revisions

of

his own sonatas and concertos.

The

graces

for the

opening

Preludeare

distinctly

differ-

ent in style from those of the Rogeredition;many

of Geminiani's

decorative

gestures

are

moulded

around

a chordal

shape

wherethe

Roger

embellish-

ments

are

predominantly

inear.

(They

come

closest

to the

chordally

based

floridity

of Geminiani's

violin

version of his own

op.5

cello

sonatas.)

The

version

of

Sonata

no.9

which the LocatelliTrio

presents

n

the

138

EARLY

MUSIC

FEBRUARY

1996






main

sequence

uses

graces

for the first movement

from

Cambridge,

University

Library,

Add.

Ms.

7059-graces

which Hans

Joachim

Marxnoted have

some

similarity

o

Geminiani's

n

approach.19

liza-

beth Wallfisch's

performance

is

technically

so

as-

sured that

she

manages

to make these sound

per-

fectly

nonchalant,

yet-as

with

so

many

other

later

sets

of decorations for these sonatas-the

point

of

the

Roger

embellishments

seems to have been lost.

Gone

are the wonderful

asymmetrical

flourishes

crossing

the

beat,

and

with them

the

sense

of a

line

being

propelled hrough

a harmonic

progression

o-

wards

a

resting

point

at the end

of a

phrase

(the

graces

of the

Roger

edition

never link

phrases).

Now

the

overlay

of

appoggiaturas,

rills

and mordents

on

top

of

florid

gestures

has

the

effect

of

making

he line

seem

fussy

and

(especially

n the first section of the

movement)even static.

In

writing

this article

I

have been

trying

not to

think of

it as

a review

so

much as

a

case

study

in

ap-

plied

performancepractice.

But I would not

want

to

evade

the inevitable

question:

which of these record-

ings

give

most

pleasure?

Of the

complete

sets,

two

can be

disregarded:

Melkus

produces

something

of

staggeringugliness,

while the

Accademia Bizantina

give

a

stilted

reading

with a naive

understanding

of

performance

practice

issues and the

rathermetallic

sound that can

result from

trying

to

make modern

instruments sound

'authentic'. The Trio

Sonnerie

and LocatelliTrio sets are an

entirely

differentmat-

ter.

They

are

hard to

separate-though

each

has dif-

ferent

virtues.

So

successfully

does each

of these

players

seem to have

assimilated

the

lessons of the

Roger

edition

that it

is,

surprisingly,

he

fast move-

ments

which

give

the

strongest impression

of

dis-

tinct

personalities.

Monica

Huggett brings

out the

lyricalqualities

even in

fastmovements and there is

a

warmth

of

sound both in

her own

playing

and

in

the

recorded

quality

of

the

ensemblewhich

is

always

pleasurable.

She and her

companions

in Trio

Son-

nerie

are

particularly

ood

at

pointing

up

structural

features-the

ABA form of the fast movements

in

Sonata

no.9,

or the

dialogue

betweenouter voices

in

the second

movementof Sonata

no.11.

(Bylsmaplay-

ing

with

Brtiggen

n this movement

obviouslyenjoys

his

semiquavers--but

we are more awareof the vir-

tuosity

of the bassline than of a

conversation.)

Eliz-

abeth

Wallfischhas a technical assurancewhich

she

uses to

very

good

musical effect.

Her

tempos

in fast

movements

are

consistently

a notchorso above

any-

one

else's,

but

they always

sound

rhythmically

alert

and

buoyant-sometimes

even

amusingly perky-

rather han

just

fast. Her sound

is less

generous

han

Huggett's,

but

one

comes

to

appreciate

ts

brightness

and

clarity.

I

find

it

hard

to choose between these

two violinists

in slow movements-both are

capable

of realfantasy.

Of the various

single

discs devoted to

these

sonatas,

I

cannot

in

the end

retain

very

much enthu-

siasm

for

Brtiggen's

seconda

parte.

In

comparison

with

more recent

recordings

t

seems to

lack

fluency

in

its

treatment

of slow

movements.

It will

already

be

obvious that the

prima parte

of

Banchini/Christen-

sen

et

al holds

a

great

deal of

interest-but

I

do

not

find

myself

listening

to

it

just

for

pleasure.

(Even

Banchini's

Storioni

violin

has

a

disappointingly

hard

quality.)

The

re-release

of

Kuijken's

selection

is

amply

justified;

ike so much else

that he has

done,

his Corelli discseta benchmark or the

performance

of

these

works,

and,

although

some

aspects

of

his

playing (ways

of

using

vibrato,

for

example)

have

changed

subtly

since

1982,

this

comes across

as a

beautifully

considered

account. Of

the

various mis-

cellanies,

the Purcell

Quartet's

selection is worth

having,

if

only

for

its

viola da

gamba

version of

Sonatano.11.

Why

not

Trio

Sonnerie for

the home

and

the

Locatelli

Trio for the

office?

1

RogerNorth on music,ed. J.Wilson

(London, 1959),

p.18o;

Sir

John

Hawkins,

A

General

History

of

the

Science

and

Practice

of

Music

(London,

1776;

R/New

York,

1963),

i,

p.677,

quoted

by

O.

Edwards,

'The

response

to Corelli's

music in

eighteenth-cen-

tury

England',

Studia

musicologica

norvegica,i (1976), .54.

2

Phrases sed

by

Angelo

Beradi

(1689)

and

Crescimbeni

(1702)

respec-

tively;

ee

'Corelli,

Arcangelo',

ew

Grove.

3

Roger

Northon

music,

p.31on.

4

This

wording

was

ncluded

n

an

advertisementn The

Nottingham

Weekly

Courant,

2

December

714;

quoted

by

Edwards,

The

response

o

Corelli's

music',

p.77.

5

A

Letter

rom

the

Late

Signor

Tartini

to

Signora

Maddalena

ombardini

(London,

771),

d. E. R.

Jacobi

Celle

EARLY

MUSIC

FEBRUARY

1996

141






&

New

York,

1971),

p.135.

6

See Six solos

for

a

flute

and

a

bass

by

Arcangelo

Corelli

being

the second

part

of

his

fifth opera

... the

whole

exactly

transpos'd

and

made

fitt for

aflute

and a

bass

with

the

aprobation

of

several

emi-

nent

masters

(London:

Walsh &

Hare,

1702;RISM C 3884). In 1703 he same

publishers

advertised

The

2d

part

of

Correllis

fifth Opera,proper

or

the

Harpsicord,

consisting

of preludes,

alle-

monds, sarabands,

gavots

and

jiggs

in

The Post

Man,

25

September;

see

Edwards,

'The

response

to Corelli's

music',

p.71.

The

viola da

gamba

arrangements

are found

in

Paris,

Bib-

liotheque

Nationale,

MS Vm

7

6308

(available

in

facsimile

from Alamire

Music

Publishers).

Two

of

these,

Sonatas nos.6

and

11,

were

published

in

England

c.1613;

he

volume,

which lacks

a

title-page,

is

found

in

London,

British

Library,

K.

1.

i. 11

(2).

7

Both titles

given

to movements

from

op.2

(Sonata

no.5,

Sarabanda,

and

Sonata

no.1,

Gavotta);

see

RISM

CC

3894c

and

3894d.

8 Trio

Sonnerie

(Monica

Huggett,

Sarah

Cunningham

and Mitzi

Meyer-

son,

joined

here

by

Nigel

North),

Virgin

Classics

CD

2) VCD7 0840-2;

Locatelli

Trio

(Elizabeth

Wallfisch,

Richard Tunnicliffe

and

Paul Nichol-

son),

Hyperion

CD

(2)

CDA

66381/2;

Accademia

Bizantina

(C.

Chiarappa

et

al), EuropaMusica CD 9) 350202;

Eduard

Melkus

Instrumental Ensemble

(Melkus,

Dreyfus,

Altmacayan

and

Scheidt),

Archiv

CD

(2) 427

161-SAGA.

Chiara

Banchini

(with

J.

Christensen,

L.

Contini

and

K.

Gohl)

has recorded

the

sonatas

of the

prima parte

on

Hyperion

CDA

6226.

Lucy

van

Dael,

Alan Curtis

and Wouter

M611er

recorded these

sonatas

in

1982

(but

the

recording

has

never

appeared

in

CD

format).

The

seconda

parte

section

of

Franz

Bruiggen's

ecording

of

the com-

plete

set

(with

Anner

Bylsma

and Gus-

tav

Leonhardt)

has been

re-released

on

RCA CD

RD7 1055.

The

recordingby

Sigiswald

Kuijken,

Wieland

Kuijken

and

Robert

Kohnen

of Sonatas

nos-.,

3,

6,

11

and

12

has

been re-released on

CD,

Accent

ACC

84330.

Other

recordings

mentioned

in this article

(which

is

by

no means a

comprehensive

survey)

are

Baroque

music

or

recorder

Conrad

Steinmann,

Jordi

Savall

and

Hopkin-

son

Smith),

Claves

CD50-8103;

Gia-

rdino

Armonico on

Nuova Era CD

6789;

Purcell

Quartet,

'La

Folia'

and

other

sonatas

(Catherine Macintosh,

Elizabeth

Wallfisch,

Richard

Boothby

and Robert

Woolley),

Hyperion

CDA

66226.

9

See his

liner

note

to

RCA

CD

RD7

1055.

o10

An

instance of this not

happening

can

be seen

in

the Locatelli

Trio's

deci-

sion to record their set a

tone

below

modern

pitch

(presumably

in defer-

ence

to

the lower

pitch prevailing

in

Rome

in

the

early

18th

century;

see

'Pitch',

New Grove

dictionary

of

musical

instruments, v,

p.126).

11

See

S.

Bonta,

'From violone

to vio-

loncello:

a

question

of

strings?',

Journal

of

the American Musical

Instrument

Society,

ii

(1977),

pp.64-99,

and 'Ter-

minology

for the

bass

violin

in

seven-

teenth-century

Italy',

Journal

of

the

American

Musical Instrument

Society,

v

(1978), PP.5-43.

Peter

Allsop points

out

that the term was used with sufficient

latitude

to

encompass

the smaller 'vio-

loncello';

see

P.

Allsop,

The

Italian

'trio' sonata

from

its

origins

until Corelli

(Oxford, 1992),

P.36.

12

See G.

S.

Brunoro,

The

life

and

works

of

Giovanni Lorenzo

Lulier

(PhD

diss., Victoria

U.

of

Wellington,

1994),

PP-14,137,354.

13

Jesper

Christensen,

in

the

liner

note

to

his

recording

with

Banchini,

writes:

'A third most

important

aspect

of

the

performance

of

this music concerns

the

instrumentation

and

realization of

the

basso continuo.

Whereas

the

origi-

nal title

page

apparently prescribes

only

one

accompaniment

instrument

("Violino

e Violone

o

Cimbalo")-like

most

Italian

title

pages

of

the

period--

contemporary

descriptions

and

pic-

tures

often show

continuo

groups

con-

sisting

of

several

instruments

...

accompanying just

one

solo instru-

ment.

This

paradox

probably

means

that no

real "standard"

or

the

con-

tinuo

instrumentation

existed,

which

has

inspired

us to

try

out

some of

the

possible

combinations

of the three

continuo

instruments,

thus also

satisfy-

ing

the characteristic

Italian taste

for

variety

of colours.

14

See

T.

Borgir,

The

performance

f

the

basso ontinuon

Italian

Baroque

music

AnnArbor,MI,

1987),

PP-5-9;

S.

Mangsen,

The

rio

sonata

n

pre-

Corellian

rints:

when

does

3

=

4?',

Performanceractice

eview,

ii

(199o),

pp.138-64;

nd

Allsop,

The talian

trio'

sonata,pp.39ff.

15

His

comments

on

the

use

of a

large

continuo

group

are

quoted

n

n.13

above.

16

See

P.

Williams,

Figured

ass

accom-

paniment,

vols.

(Edinburgh,

970),

i,

P.77.

17

See

Mangsen,

The rio

sonata

n

pre-Corellian rints',

pp.157f.

18

Roger

North

on

music,

.161.

19

H.

J. Marx,

Someunknown mbel-

lishments

of

Corelli's iolin

sonatas',

Musical

uarterly,

xi

(1975),

P-74.

LACOCK

summer chool

or

singers

and

players

of

renaissancenstruments

21

-

26

July

EMILIO

e' CAVALIERI

La

rappresentatione

e anima

e

corpo

28

July

-

2

August

ALESSANDRO STRIGGIO

40-part

motet

Ecce

beatem ucem

CLAUDIO

MONTEVERDI

Mass In

illo tempore

Tutors

DuncanDruce

Robert

Hollingworth

AndrewLawrence-King

KeithMcGowan

Jonathan

Morgan

Jeremy

West

details rom

Andrew

ander

Beek,

Cantax

House,

Lacock,

hippenham,

Wiltshire

N15

JZ,

ngland

tel/fax

+44

0)1249

30468

142

EARLY

MUSIC

FEBRUARY

1996

This content downloaded from 90 48 197 33 on Sat 23 Jan 2016 23:43:49 UTC

Documents

Performing Corelli's Opus 5 Peter Walls EM 1996