Torelli opus 2
This new release from Challenge Classics presents 12 trio sonatas for two violins and continuo by Giuseppi Torelli. Torelli’s legacy is founded in development of the concerto genre, both for violin and trumpet. A great deal of his career centered him in Bologna. It is difficult to say how his location influenced his style, but his music does sound different from that of contemporary Corelli (who was in Rome) and the younger Albonini, focused in Venice.
I am not familiar with leader Pietro Battistoni or his ensemble, Rosso Verona Baroque Ensemble. The collection is performed in full, but out of order. The back cover reveals what’s special about this collection—it’s the first Italian sonatas to feature menuets.
The ensemble does vary the continuo used which I always appreciate (using bowed cello, lute, and harpsichord as options). I may also hear harp. The recorded sound is not of my favorite variety, adopting a small distance between microphones and the performers, revealing a lot of detail about the acoustics of the space where the recording was made. Dynamic shifts, which appear often, are almost amplified a bit, making it more difficult perhaps to hear when an echo effect is used. Clearly the ensemble plays tightly together but the luxury of feeling that we’re sitting among them isn’t there. We also lose some of the detail in sound that I like to hear in chamber music.
The opening of sonata IX reminded me in his contrapuntal writing how Torelli wasn’t nearly as gifted a composer as Corelli. It’s not that his themes are lacking, but his abilities for how to adapt those themes over time is more limited. The corrente from sonata VI demonstrates another type of writing, where the second violin is used to fill in harmonies while the first violin leads with the melodic material. The two violins instead of sounding as two independent voices operate as one. The gigha from sonata III treats the two violins slightly differently, following one another at an harmonic interval. It’s in these experimental treatments of the three main parts that make this music somewhat interesting. The corrente from sonata X provides some more independence between the violin parts, while still in counterpoint. As I heard before, these ideas Torelli presents are never developed very far harmonically. Instead of taking us into a secondary phrase, he repeats the original material. This limits the length of many of the dances, which simply present again the musical material.
While less developed, perhaps, than the trio sonatas by Vivaldi or even Albinoni, these are interesting in the variety of moods for which Torelli is able to conjure. The musicians here are technically sure, and have responded to the potential affect of these pieces with sensitivity and good dynamics.
The album cover alerts us that these include world-premier recordings, and I’m guessing that the entire set had not yet been recorded. This recording therefore is an important contribution in helping us better understand the evolution of Italian styles that emerged and developed during the baroque. While it may not be for me to listen to this album in completion in a sitting, the pieces are worthy of further analysis on their own and became even more engaging against other pieces that compete with compositional style. Their implicit simplicity in terms of harmonic progressions was at times a refreshing contrast.
