Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762): Concerti Grossi Op 2 & Op 3

00:00 Concerto Grosso n 1 Op 2 in Do minore: Andante - Allegro - Grave, Andante, Prestissimo, Andante - Allegro cantabile
09:17 Concerto Grosso n 2 Op 2 in Do minore: Andante moderato - Presto - Andante - Allegro
18:02 Concerto Grosso n 3 Op 2 in Re minore: Andante - Allegro assai - Andante - Allegro assai
25:56 Concerto Grosso n 4 Op 2 in Re: Andante - Allegro - Andante - Allegro
32:59 Concerto Grosso n 5 Op 2 in Re minore: Adagio - Allegro - Andante - Allegro
40:25 Concerto Grosso n 6 Op 2 in La: Andante - Allegro - Allegro
48:15 Concerto Grosso n 1 Op 3 in Re: Adagio - Allegro - Adagio - Allegro
58:34 Concerto Grosso n 2 Op 3 in Sol minore: Largo e staccato - Allegro - Adagio - Allegro
1:09:35 Concerto Grosso n 3 Op 3 in Mi minore: Adagio e staccato, Allegro - Adagio - Allegro
1:17:51 Concerto Grosso n 4 Op 3 in Re minore: Largo e staccato - Allegro - Largo - Vivace
1:24:17 Concerto Grosso n 5 Op 3 in Si bemolle: Adagio - (Allegro) - Adagio - Allegro
1:32:32 Concerto Grosso n 6 Op 3 in Mi minore: Adagio - Allegro - Allegro

Societá Corelli

Francesco Geminiani is one of those illustrious men whose date of birth is unknown. As with Vivaldi, musicologists confine themselves to giving general dates which do not always agree. The most reliable sources, however, place Geminiani’s birth in Lucca sometime around 1687. As to his life, we are still confronted with a number of obscurities and doubts. While it was easy to follow and reconstruct Vivaldi’s career step by step, centered as it was almost completely around the Seminario della Pietà in Venice or the Viennese Court, it was much less easy for musicologists to arrange the events of Geminiani’s stormy life into any sort of chronological order. Geminiani belonged to the glorious rank of Italian violinist-composers who, at the turn of the 17th century, cultivated at the European courts that fertile soil out of which was shortly to spring the great instrumental tradition of western music.

As to his formal training, all that is known is that it took place in Naples and Rome, under the virtuoso guidance of famous composers such as Arcangelo Corelli and even Alessandro Scarlatti. But the soil in which Geminiani’s art was to enjoy the greatest development and growth was in England, where he first arrived in 1714, not yet thirty. In London, he quickly became famous as a violin virtuoso. His reputation was not earned gradually but, on the contrary, was established practically overnight by a memorable concert at the royal palace, during which he was apparently accompanied at the harpsichord by no less a musician than George Frideric Handel. Geminiani’s intellectual curiosity and zest for life were, however, so keen that he was unable to confine himself to a career as an instrumental virtuoso, no matter how brilliant. Unlike many composers, his contemporaries or not, Geminiani was a man open to experience; famous, for example, was his passion for painting for which he possessed a certain talent and which despite economic difficulties of every sort, led him to become the owner of a rather good collection of paintings. His first compositions were published only some twenty years later. An unusual fact, indeed, at a time when composers of around forty were already old masters with a considerable amount of music to their credit.

The twelve Concerti Grossi, Opp. 2 and 3, may, in fact, be considered Geminiani's earliest efforts as a composer, since those contained in Op. 1 are not original, but intended rather as a tribute to his former teacher, that is to say, transcriptions for larger instrumental groups of the twelve solo violin sonatas by Arcangelo Corelli. Which fact helps, as shall be seen later, to explain several of the overall stylistic features of these two collections of concerti grossi.

After the publication of Op. 3, Geminiani emigrated to Ireland and settled down to live in Dublin, though he was frequently called away on numerous concert tours. As to his success as a virtuoso of the violin, a great deal of direct and reliable evidence has come down to us, including a letter by Mrs. Delaney, a friend of Handel, which describes the dazzling success of one of the virtuoso artist’s musical evenings. The letter is dated 1760, which means that even at that age, the violinist was apparently still able to captivate the public with the wonders of his technique. But the most important evidence is afforded by Tartini, who held Geminiani in the highest esteem and who nick-named him «the wild violinist».

Geminiani died in Dublin in 1762. His contribution to the development of violin technique was left not only in his music but also in the numerous theoretical works he wrote and compiled during his long lifetime. He wrote various treatises in English, among them, «Rules for playing in true taste», «The art of playing violin» and «The art of accompaniment ».

[calefonxcalectric]

The Concerti Grossi, Opp. 2 and 3, appeared one year apart, in 1732 and 1733 respectively. The London publisher, Walsh, issued them as separate parts, that is to say, not in score form.

The title of Op. 3 was as follows: « Concerti grossi con due violini, viola e violoncello di concerti obbligati e due altri violini e bassi di Concerto grosso di Francesco Geminiani, opera III ».

More than twenty years later, a second edition was put out at the composer’s expense. This time, the score was printed as well as the separate parts, and in some places it was substantially different from the original first edition. The composer’s tastes had in the meantime evolved along with the musical culture of his day and traveled further down that path which (to resort to well-known terms of comparison) led from Johann Sebastian Bach to his sons, Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian. In any case, the original versions dating from 1732-33 are the ones used on the present recording.

Charles Burney, the famous 18th century musicologist who through his extensive travels, left a colorful and often penetrating picture of the musical life of the Europe of his day, did not fail to criticize Geminiani in his General History of Music, accusing him of being virtually a dilettante. Actually, as long as the term is taken in the best and highest sense, that is, of a craftsmanlike «delight» in the free making of music, the observation is not incorrect. In Opp. 2 and 3, there are all the complex and contradictory characteristics of a youthful endeavor. It is not easy to sum up the salient traits in a few lines. The brilliant luster, the inventive vigor of the phrasing, condemned by Burney as whimsical improvization, redeem, rather, the use of a formal plan which the overwhelming impulse of Vivaldi had already rendered more elastic and flexible. In the overall concerto form and the sequence of movements, one might say that Geminiani had remained true to the doctrines of the preceding generation, of Corelli and Alessandro Scarlatti. While Vivaldi had pruned the concerto grosso form, reducing the movements almost always to three (an Adagio and two Allegros), Geminiani remains attached to the old sonata da chiesa, and preserves the four-movement span with a broad and quiet introductory Adagio which is often densely chromatic.

Another element which could be termed conservative with respect to the impulse given by a Vivaldi or a Domenico Scarlatti towards the future evolution of music, is Geminiani’s fondness for fugues. Not only do the twelve concerti grossi generally speaking abound in fugal forms, but some of the individual movements, such as the first Allegro of Op. 3, No. 3, or of Op. 3, No. 6, are often straightforward fugues, handled in a masterly fashion, based perhaps on one of those chromatic themes dear to Bach or even Frescobaldi.

Geminiani tempers his unconcern for personal formal solutions with a gift for elaborating his thematic material with great richness of inven-tion; a special talent for assimilation, together with an inexhaustible artistic curiosity, enable him to absorb all the musical experiences encountered on his extensive European travels. The every-shifting mobility of his imagination recalls, not so much the austere majesty of his master, as the fanciful and restless invention of Domenico Scarlatti.

It is this latter who also comes to mind in many of the last movements of the concertos of Opp. 2 and 3; even in their structure, they are identical to the so-called Scarlatti sonata: two parts, both with repeats, the first modulating from the tonic to a neighboring key (the dominant or the relative minor) and the second, beginning with the new key, and modulating back to the tonic.

These, then, are the contradictory, the passive and active elements which have given rise to such differences of opinion on the part of musicologists over the centuries, from the critical attacks of Burney to the enthusiastic praise, a hundred years later, of the great German critic, Hugo Riemann.

As far as contemporary musicology is concerned, unfortunately there is not one biography which brings the figure of Geminiani into focus as a composer, and places him in the context of early 18th century music.

All the more reason, then, for considering the presentation of this recorded edition of the twelve Concerti Grossi, Opp. 2 and 3, to the listening public, an event of unquestionable cultural importance and one which constitutes a significant contribution towards a more appropriate familiarity with the music of this great Italian composer.

GUIDO BAGGIANI


Founded in 1951, the Società Corelli is today an organization with a world-wide reputation.

Composed of twelve strings, and eventually a piano or harpsichord, the Società Corelli performs without a conductor, guided rather by a commonly-shared musical ideal which makes of them a truly exceptional and unified artistic body.

From its very first appearances, the «Corelli» was recognized as one of the finest chamber orchestras in existence, a reputation which rapidly spread throughout Europe and all over the world. They have taken innumerable concert tours, the more important of which being the Italian government-sponsored tour in celebration of the third centenary of the birth of Arcangelo Corelli, the tours through North, Central and South America, the «around-the-world» tour during which the outstanding group gave concerts in such places as India, Malaya, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the United States, where they were hailed and acclaimed by audiences and critics alike. The orchestra consists of four first and three second violins, two violas, two cellos, a double bass and a piano (or harpsichord). Soloists include, cellist and artistic director Silvano Zuccarini, pianist Mirella Zuccarini and violinist Aldo Redditi.

As its chosen name implies, the Società Corelli had originally limited its repertoire to Italian 17th and 18th century music, but they have gradually extended it to include both Italian and non-ltalian contemporary music. Up to the time, the «Corelli» has made more than ten LP recordings for RCA Italiana, containing works by Corelli, Vivaldi, Marcello, Purcell, Britten, Boccherini, Bach and many others.

Turin-born Aldo Redditi, after graduating at a very early age from the Turin Conservatory, went on to complete his studies under Vasa Prihoda in Salzburg. A highly-esteemed concert artist, he has appeared in many musical events and on numerous concert tours in most of the capital cities of the world, encountering everywhere the warmest acclaim on the part of music-lovers and critics alike.

REGISTRATO A ROMA NEGLI STUDI DELLA RCA ITALIANA
Assistente musicale: GUIDO PODESTA
Tecnico della registrazione: GIOVANNI FORNARI
Tecnico del re-recording: GIULIO SPELTA

RCA (MLDS 61004 (3))

[titogiliberto]

Il Settecento esprime una felicità di fondo sempre, anche quando canta la malinconia o il turbamento.

[charlesalkula]

From the first note I was taken aback with the sounds of joy. Just what I needed on a frigid January morning.

[jlb]

What gems one finds in the ocean of YouTube!

[raffitorossian]

Although i am listening this composer for the first time at this moment, but all i can say he is a giant composer. Thanks for uploading.

[salvatorebuggea]

Grande musica variante equilibrata espressiva e profpnda.

[Discovery_and_Change]

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0:05 begins | 1:57 transition | 1:32:32

[litaman]

¡Muchísimas gracias! Me gusta mucho Geminiani (aún más que Corelli). Su música es tan noble, tan profunda y sostenida, con tantos matices !

[aleksandarjovanovic]

wonderful music, as these composedby Coelli, Vitali, Piani. I am always delighted while I can hear each of them of all these fantastic composers

[thecasuist]

Great performance, lively but never too fast, all parts easy to follow. Especially beautiful movements include those beginning at 13:50 and 1:21:53.

[shadbolt]

Tribute to delicate style.Different from the strong thematics of Handel's grossi, and more eloquent than the Brandenburgs, to my ears.

[balutkuniescu]

1680-1690 una década sublíme para la música, nacen Bach, Häendel y Geminiani

[claudiaaltuve]

Les comparto lo que a mí me esta cambiando mi vida en Grandes Bendiciones 💕💖💕 Visiten El Santísimo Sacramento a diario o los días que puedan y verán los Milagros en su vida 🙏❤️🙏

[marcollano]

Whose are the recordings? Performers? Dates?

[PaulA-ospb]

why so many commercials on this one video!!

[martyheresniak]

No, thank you. I will listen to channels that do not monetize with nearly constant advertisements in the middle of movements.

[alexreik]

some donkey posted a "hoomeow"" sickening and off-putting to an extreme