Rachel Podger, violin Marcin Świątkiewicz, harpsichord & organ Daniele Caminiti, theorbo By the mid-seventeenth century, musical composition had reached a point where invention had converged with technical mastery. Composers embraced a bass line lively with linearity, often entering into dialogue with the upper voices. Exploratory harmonic schemes were encompassed within larger unified tonalities. Through rhetorical structures, such as motive, imitation and sequence, composers instilled logic into their musical arguments. These characteristics, though rooted in vocal practice, were being cultivated for the first time in musical history for instrumentalists. In other words, the Baroque was born. The featured composers showcase sublime examples of the early Italian Baroque. Some composers dominate the repertory; others have left behind only a handful of works. Here, they come together to convey the diverse musical landscape at such an excitingly rich and creative era. Very little is known about Giovanni Battista Fontana (d. 1631), and what is known about his life and music is confined to a few, somewhat speculative, documents. The preface to a posthumous publication Sonate a 1. 2. 3. per il violino, o cornetto, fagotto, chitarone, violoncino o simile altro istromento (Venice, 1641) has been used to construct a biography with only a few landmarks: Fontana was born in Brescia, employed in his home town, Rome and Padua, and died during the plague which affected northern Italy (also claiming Giovanni Paolo Cima featured below). Due to the posthumous nature of the sonatas, the editorial designation of “il violono” is not certain; nevertheless, the Sonata Seconda is particularly suited to the violin, with the oscillation between long melodic phrases and vigorous rhythmic passages enlivened by string crossings. The Italian composer and keyboard virtuoso Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643) was described by a contemporary to have his entire intellect “in his fingertips”. It is possible to glean his celebrated performing style through the printed 1615 collections. The Toccata Prima and Toccata per Spinettina e Violino demonstrates his wonderfully improvisatory yet contrapuntal aesthetic. A wide range of affetti is generated through the subtle and gradual transformation of motives. Frescobaldi’s attention to rhythm and tempi convey a flexibility towards performance and characterisation. The surviving compositions of Marco Uccellini (1603-1680) trace the development of violin writing in the first half of the seventeenth century. His collections, almost wholly devoted to sonatas, greatly expand violinistic technique, featuring virtuosic passages and notably high writing. Such technical achievements are married to an expanded expressive range: the Sonata overo Toccata quinta a violino solo “detta la Laura rilucente” ventures into remote keys and intense chromaticism. The legacy of Dario Castello (1590- 1658) comprises 29 works. In the Sonata Seconda, Castello’s development of an episodic structure, juxtaposing sections of contrasting characters, is a stunning example of the stile moderno. Castello swerves between the farthest reaching emotions in the space of a barline, creating adventurous music for the performer and listener alike. The vocalism of the music of Biago Marini (1594-1663) is clear in his Sonata quatro per sonar con due corde. Indeed at points, his musical vocabulary is exceptionally vocal: expansive melodic lines are coloured with accenti and embellished with madrigalistic tirades of semiquavers. The work encapsulates the ambivalent dichotomy between vocal and instrumental music so prevalent and characteristic of the time. So little is known about Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli (1630-1670); indeed, Andrew Manze jokingly wonders whether the composer was “invented by a mischievous musicologist one wet Wednesday”. Make-belief or not, Mealli’s influence is indisputable. The Sonata Sesta (Op 4, 1690) “La Vinciolina” illustrates the latest fashions in violin technique. Embedded within the stylus phantasticus, Mealli leads the listener through an unpredictable journey of invention and contrast. Isabella Leonarda (1620-1704) entered the Collegio di Sant’Orsola in 1636, and remained in the convent for the rest of her life. A prolific composer, leaving behind approximately 200 compositions, the 1693 collection is of particular historical importance: they are thought to be the earliest sonatas published by a woman. The Sonata Duodecima reflects Leonarda’s mostly liturgical oeuvre: her harmonic writing is adventurous, and suggestive of the expressive word-painting often found in her vocal works. The inclusion of Andrea Gabrieli (1532/3-1585) among these other composers of the early Italian Baroque is somewhat anomalous. However, it is the polychoral and concertato styles that Gabrieli developed during his time at St Mark’s in Venice, that are often used to define the shift from the late Renaissance into the early Baroque. When travelling in Germany, Gabrieli met Orlande de Lassus (1532- 1594), and it is from this acquaintance that Gabrieli begun to compose purely instrumental music. The Ricercar del Primo Tono is bursting with contrast, and its subtlety and intimate moments are remarkable considering it was conceived by a composer so accustomed to grand acoustical spaces. Giovanni Paolo Cima (1570-1622), an organist in his native Milan, composed both sacred and instrumental music. Cima’s work clearly delineates the movement away from polyphony towards the texture of melody and basso continuo. The Sonata a due from his 1610 collection concisely, yet creatively, describes this development of the early Baroque. While Italian by birth, Antonio Bertali (1605-1669) lived in Vienna for most of his life as an Imperial court composer under Emperor Ferdinand ii. Bertali’s reputation today rests on two posthumous collections of instrumental music (1671 and 1672). Biographical confusion in the literature exists, mainly due to the fact that his name is spelt many different ways in contemporary sources. Nevertheless, the dissemination of Bertali’s music throughout northern Europe testifies to his influence as a representative of the great Italian instrumental composers. The Chiacona is Bertali’s best known work: sparkling with clarity and joyous simplicity, the Chiacona flows by in a stream of carefree yet meticulously constructed phrases. Mark Seow 2014