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CD reviews
The mandolin in Paris and London
[I] "Un air d'Italie - The mandolin in Paris in the 18th century"
Marc Mauillon, tenora
Pizzicar Galante
rec: Nov 17 - 21, 2022, Castelfranco Veneto (Treviso), Villa Parco Bolasco (Sala delle feste)
Arcana - A552 (© 2023) (69'05")
Liner-notes: E/F/IT; lyrics - translations: E/IT
Cover, track-list & booklet
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anon:
La Fürstenberg;
Sonata I in C [2];
Sonata IV in G [2];
Sonata VI in g minor [2];
Nicolas DEZÈDE (1740-1798):
Julie (Lison dormait dans un bocage)a;
Antoine FORQUERAY (1672-1745):
2e Suite in G (La Mandoline) [1];
Giovanni Battista GERVASIO (c1730-after 1786):
Sonata in C;
Sonata in D;
André-Ernest-Modeste GRÉTRY (1741-1813):
L'amant jaloux (Tandis que tout sommeille)a
Sources:
[1] Antoine Forqueray, Pièces de viole, 1747;
[2] La Veuve Boivin, ed., [D Scarlatti] Sonates pour le clavecin..., op. 4, 1751
Anna Schivazappa, mandolin;
Ronald Martin Alonso, viola da gamba;
Maria Christina Cleary, harp;
Daniel de Morais, theorbo, archlute, guitar;
Anna Fontana, harpsichord
[II] "The mandolin in London"
Marina Bartoli, sopranoa
Artemandoline
rec: Nov 17 - 20, Rindschleiden (Lux), Église Saint-Willibrord
deutsche harmonia mundi - 19658888322 (© 2024) (65'55")
Liner-notes: E/D
Cover, track-list & booklet
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Carlo ARRIGONI (1697-1744):
Canzonetta IVa;
Francesco Bartolomeo CONTI (1681-1732):
Sonata al mandolino solo e basso;
Bernard FLEMMING (18th C):
The tuneful lutea [4];
Giacomo MERCHI (1726-1789):
Trio I;
Girolamo NONNINI (1726-1789):
Canzonetta IIIa;
James OSWALD (1711-1769):
Divertimento VI [3];
Divertimento XVI [3];
Girolamo STABILINI (1762-1815):
Jig;
Robert VALENTINE (c1671-1747):
Sonata I in A, op. 12,1 [2];
Joseph VERNON (c1738-1782):
What is that to you (A favourite Scotch Song)a;
Giovanni Francesco WEBER (fl 1724-1751):
Sonata IV;
Sonata XII
Sources:
[1] Girolamo Nonnini, Six Italian Canzonets, for a Single Voice Which may be Accompanied either by the Harpischord, Guitar, Harp or Mandolin, [n.d.];
[2] Roberto Valentini, Sonate per il flauto traversiero, col basso che possono servire per violino, mandola, et oboe, op. 12, 1730;
[3] James Oswald Eighteen Divertimentos for two Guitars or two Mandelins, 1757;
[4] The Musical Companion, 1762
Juan Carlos Muñoz, Mari Fe Pavón, mandolin;
Oleguer Aymami, cello;
Josep María Martí Duran, theorbo;
Manuel Muñoz, guitar;
Ralf Waldner, harpsichord
The mandolin has played an important role in European music history. However, this is hardly reflected in today's performance practice. For a long time only now and then a piece for mandolin was recorded, especially the Vivaldi concertos, but it hardly made an appearance at the concert platform. Even when historical performance practice aimed at reviving forgotten instruments, the mandolin was almost completely overlooked. Only a few specialists have dealt with the history and repertoire of the instrument. Since a few years, however, the tide seems to be turning. Several discs with music for mandolin, either solo or in ensemble, have been released. The discs under review here attest to this.
Anna Schivazappa and the ensemble Pizzicar Galante devoted a disc to the playing of the mandolin in France. Since the early 18th century, the French gradually abandoned their strong reservations towards the Italian style. After a few decades Italian music even became quite popular, and one of the most frequently-performed composers at the Concert Spirituel was Antonio Vivaldi. This explains that the mandolin, as a typical Italian instrument, found a fertile soil in France. Antoine Forqueray, one of the greatest viola da gamba virtuosos of his time, paid tribute to the instrument's popularity with his La mandoline from his first book of viola da gamba pieces. It was published in 1747 by his son, but it seems likely that it was written much earlier.
In 1750 the mandolin appeared for the first time at the Concert Spirituel. The player was Carlo Sodi, who was from Rome, and moved to Paris around 1749. He lived there until his death in 1788, and was active as maître de mandoline. His performance in 1750 was the start of a wave of enthusiasm for the mandolin, which is reflected by the publication of no fewer than five mandolin methods between 1767 and 1772. There were several reasons for the quickly growing popularity of the instrument. "It was especially suited to the use of amateurs and professionals alike; it was light, inexpensive and easy to transport; and in its variant forms it rapidly conveyed, and widely transmitted, a truly Italian identity", Théodora Psychoyou states in her liner-notes. It was especially the Neapolitan mandolin that disseminated across France: like the violin, it has four courses of double strings tuned in fifths, which made it easily accessible to amateurs. Moreover, it was perfectly suited to accompany oneself in songs.
The programme offers specimens of what was played in France at the time. It includes two sonatas by Giovanni Battista Gervasio, whose music for mandolin recently was part of a disc on the Italian label Tactus. The years of his birth and death are not known, but he was born in Naples and specialized in the mandolin. He improved the four-course mandolin, and as a virtuoso on the instrument he performed in many places across Europe: Paris, London, Frankfurt, Berlin, Amsterdam, Stockholm and Vienna. He was also active as a teacher; among his pupils were members of the aristocracy. He was the author of the first didactic work published in Paris, Méthode très facile pour apprendre à jouer la Mandoline, which was used as a reference for several centuries. His sonatas are brilliant and lively: listen to the gavotta which closes the Sonata in D.
Particularly interesting are the three anonymous sonatas, which are taken from a collection preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. It is dated 1751, and the sonatas are attributed to Domenico Scarlatti. However, in fact we have here transcriptions of arias from operas by Italian composers, such as Francesco Mancini, Francesco Bartolomeo Conti and Nicola Francesco Haym. They are transcribed for an unspecified instrument in the treble range and basso continuo, and they are perfectly suited to be played at the mandolin, as this disc shows. With them we get very fine sonatas in four or five movements. Two pieces attest to the use of the mandolin in vocal music. The air 'Lison dormait dans un bocage' from Julie by Nicolas Dezède is performed here in an arrangement for voice and mandolin with basso continuo, which is included in one of the mandolin methods. 'Tandis que tout sommeille' from L'amant jaloux by André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry was originally scored for voice with two mandolins; here we hear an adaptation for one mandolin.
The programme closes with the only piece played on a Lombard mandolin, which offers the possibility to compare the two types of mandolin. La Fürstenberg was a French traditional song which was quite popular at the time and arranged by various composers. This is a very fine set of variations by an anonymous composer. It is brilliantly played, and that sums up the character of this entire disc. It shows that music of high quality was written for the mandolin, and that is was taken seriously, as it should be, also in our time. It is a matter of good fortune that we have such virtuosos as Anna Schivazappa to bring out all the qualities of the mandolin repertoire. These are outstanding and engaging performances which guarantee almost 70 minutes of entertainment. Marc Mauillon's singing in the airs is pure delight.
In England musical developments usually manifested themselves much later than on the continent. The baroque style established itself only in the mid-17th century, almost fifty years late. In the case of the mandolin, the English seem to have been right up to date. In the first half of the 18th century the instrument was hardly known, and it was only sporadically played in public. Some references to the mandolin show that it was confused with the English guitar. If the mandolin was played, it was by foreign performers, such as Francesco Weber (or Webber), who arrived in London in 1724 and performed a mandolin concerto in 1728. However, it was only in the 1760s that the mandolin gradually became a more common instrument - not much later than in France.
Again, the main players of the mandolin were foreigners. The Neapolitan mandolin virtuoso Gabriele Leone (or Leoni) played in London in 1760, and music shops started to sell mandolins. A token of the dissemination of the instrument is that it was not only played in London, but made its appearance in provincial concerts as well. Compositions for the Neapolitan mandolin started to be published, such as entertainments (divertimentos) for two mandolins, two violins and basso continuo by Giovanni Gualdo (1765). Mandolin teachers who were active in Paris, came to London in the 1760s and 70s. The programme recorded by Artemandoline includes pieces by several of the foreign mandolin players who made an appearance in England, not only in London, but also in Bath, which was another musical centre.
The booklet includes interesting and informative liner-notes by Paul Sparks, which I have used for the survey of the development of mandolin playing in England above. Otherwise the booklet leaves much to be desired. The lyrics of the vocal items are omitted, and so are the keys of the instrumental pieces and the sources from which they are taken. The track-list is incomplete: the tracks 17 to 21 are omitted, and the tags are partly wrong. It says that Bernard Flemming's air is part of Oswald's Divertimento VI which precedes it. The second movement of Weber's Sonata XII is a larghetto, according to the tag, but the track-list says its an allegro, which is certainly right. The booklet also fails to indicate who plays the mandolin in the tracks 11 and 16 to 25. This is really disappointing, and the lack of documentation of the music included here is all the more regrettable as, for instance, New Grove offers no information about most of the composers. Weber, Nonnini, Arrigoni, Flemming, Vernon and Stabilini have no entry in the encyclopedia.
The inclusion of a sonata by Robert Valentine is questionable. He emigrated to Italy and made a career in Rome (where he was known as Roberto Valentini); the Sonata I is the first from his Op. 12, which was recorded complete by the ensemble Pizzicar Galante. James Oswald was of Scottish birth, educated at the cello, and made a career in London. The two divertimentos included here are taken from Eighteen Divertimentos for two Guitars or two Mandelins, published in London in 1757, although these works are, according to Sparks, "clearly intended for English guittar". That in itself does not disqualify them for performance on mandolins, but I would have liked specific mandolin pieces instead. The sonata by Francesco Bartolomeo Conti is his only work for mandolin, but in his vocal music he often included obbligato parts for it. He was in London between 1703 and 1707, where he played the mandolin, "an instrument not yet known", according to an advertisement. Girolamo Nonnini was one of those virtuosos who came from Paris; there he had played at the Concert Spirituel. Another was Giacomo Merchi, who frequently visited England, and often performed in Bath and Oxford. Girolamo Stabilini is the latest composer in the programme; he was from Rome and came to England in 1783. He soon took over the leadership of the orchestral concerts in St Cecilia's Hall in Edinburgh. He was a violinist by profession, who often played his own music, but also performed on the mandolin. Joseph Vernon was an actor and singer (tenor), who also composed songs and ballads. About Bernard Flemming I have not been able to find any information.
The shortcomings in the documentation - very much unlike the releases of this label - are annoying, but should not prevent anyone from investigating this disc. If you are interested in the mandolin and its role in 18th-century music life, this is an indispensable recording, and a nice complement to the disc with music from Paris reviewed here too. The music is always entertaining, and the performances are of the highest level. Marina Bartoli is excellent in the vocal items.
Johan van Veen (© 2024)
Relevant links:
Marina Bartoli
Artemandoline
Pizzicar Galante