Baroque Violin Favourites
George Frideric Handel was born in Germany, spent a few
years in Italy, and returned north, eventually to take up residence in London,
where he came to hold a dominant position in English musical life, from his
earlier days as a composer of Italian opera to later years as the creator of English
oratorio. His posthumous influence, after his death in London in 1759, was
incalculable. Much of Handel's instrumental music was written during the
earlier part of his life, subsequently published, with or without the
composer's consent, particularly during the 17305. Of the violin sonatas the
best known remains the Sonata in D major, included in the Handel Gesellschaft
complete edition as Op.l, No.13. The first movement, marked Affettuoso
starts with a figure based on the ascending notes of the chord of D major, tellingly
extended by one note, a figure that later recurs. The following Allegro, is
fugal in character, with the opening violin theme answered by the keyboard in
the middle and then in the lower register, later to return after intervening
episodes. The B minor Larghetto is an effective aria, leading the way to
an energetic final Allegro.
Born in Bologna in 1663, Tomaso Vitali was the son of
Giovanni Battista Vitali, a string-player, singer and composer. A violinist,
and presumably a pupil of his father, he moved with his father to Modena in
1674 and remained there, serving subsequently as leader of the court orchestra
until 1742. The famous Chaconne in G minor attributed to him and popularly
known as Vitali's Chaconne was brought to wide attention through
Ferdinand David, the violinist for whom Mendelssohn wrote his Violin
Concerto in E minor. David published the work, with his own very
considerable elaborations and these have largely formed the basis of later
editions. An early manuscript in Dresden attributes the piece to 'Vitalino' and
this has been taken, rightly or wrongly, as a reference to the younger Vitali,
while some have suggested that the violin part may have been worked out by some
famous Dresden virtuoso, such as Vivaldi's pupil Pisendel, on the pattern
provided by Vitali's initial work. Based on a baroque variation form, the Chaconne
uses a repeated chordal pattern over a descending bass-line, allowing the
violin a chance of increasingly elaborate display, as the work proceeds.
Much of Johann Sebastian Bach's instrumental music was
written during the happy period he spent as court Kapellmeister in Cothen. The Suite
in D major, third of four such works, has been dated to 1729 or 1730, at a
time when Bach was in Leipzig, employed by the city council with responsibility
for the music of the principal city churches. He also took on the direction of
the university Collegium Musicum, for which it may be supposed the Suite
was written. The so-called Air on the G string was originally no such
thing, but simply a movement in the Suite scored for strings alone. Its
transformation came about through a pupil of Ferdinand David, the violinist
August Wilhelmj.
Bach's three Sonatas and three Partitas for
unaccompanied violin were the work of his time at Cothen and have long
presented an essential challenge to any violinist. The last of the group, the Partita
in E major, starts with a brilliant Prelude and includes the
effective Gavotte en Rondeau, both movements often included by Yehudi Menuhin
as encore items in concert performance.
Arcangelo Corelli belongs to the generation before Bach
and Handel, both of whom were influenced by him. A violinist and composer, his later
career centred on Rome, where he briefly met Handel, finding the latter's style
to have elements of French rather than Italian taste. Corelli's twelve Concerti
Grossi had a long-lasting influence on the development of that form, providing
a pattern for later generations, as did his many Trio Sonatas. His
twelve violin sonatas include works following the four-movement church sonata
pattern and chamber sonatas with dance movements. The collection ends with a
set of variations on a popular dance melody of the time, La Folia or Les Folies
d'Espagne. After the opening statement of the theme the violin variations
become increasingly demanding, with changes of pace, rhythm and figuration.
Born in Venice in 1678, the violinist and composer
Antonio Vivaldi had particular importance in the development of the solo concerto,
of which he left a very large number of examples, many of them for the violin.
His sonatas for violin and basso continuo include a set published in
1709 as Opus 2, and dedicated to Frederick IV of Denmark, who was then opportunely
visiting Venice. The second of these, the Sonata in A major, RV 31, like
the rest of the set, owes much to the example of Corelli. It opens with a Preludio
a Capriccio, which offers some chance for virtuosity. This leads to a dance
movement, a Corrente, followed by an Adagio and a final Giga.
Giuseppe Tartini was among the leading violinist composers
of his time, responsible for discoveries in acoustic theory and for the
foundation of a school of violin-playing in Padua that attracted pupils from
many countries. He is said to have attributed his Devil's Trill sonata
to a dream in which he found the Devil in his service, offering him a violin on
which he played music that Tartini, on waking, endeavoured to recapture. The
sonata starts with a Larghetto in the rhythm and mood of a Siciliana.
This leads to an energetic Allegro. A short slow section leads to the
more complex concluding Allegro, with its multiple stopping and trills
accompanying a melody on another string, a technically demanding conclusion,
with brief respite in intervening slower interludes and room for a virtuoso
cadenza.
Keith Anderson