musica Dei donum
CD reviews
Carlo Ambrogio LONATI (c1645-c1712): Sonatas for violin and basso continuo
[I] "Sonate da camera (1701)"
Gunar Letzbor, violin
Ars Antiqua Austria
rec: March 7 - 10, 2016, Augustinerstift St. Florian (Altomontesaal)
Pan Classics - PC 10363 (© 2017) (61'42")
Liner-notes: E/D
Cover, track-list & booklet
Spotify
Sonata No. 7 in g minor;
Sonata No. 8 in d minor;
Sonata No. 9;
Sonata No. 12 in G
Jan Krigovsky, violone 8';
Hubert Hoffmann, lute;
Erich Traxler, harpsichord, organ
[II] "Sonate da chiesa (1701)"
Gunar Letzbor, violin
Ars Antiqua Austria
rec: March 9 - 11, 2017, Augustinerstift St. Florian (Altomontesaal)
Pan Classics - PC 10387 (© 2018) (57'27")
Liner-notes: E/D
Cover, track-list & booklet
Spotify
Sonata No. 1 in D;
Sonata No. 2 in g minor;
Sonata No. 3 in d minor;
Sonata No. 5 in e minor;
Sonata No. 6 in a minor
Peter Trefflinger, viola da braccio;
Hubert Hoffmann, theorbo;
Erich Traxler, harpsichord, organ
Scores
Carlo Ambrogio Lonati does not fare well at today's performance practice. Only a few discs are devoted to his oeuvre, and he also seldom appears in anthologies. That is especially striking if one compares him with Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli, also a brilliant violinist, whose two collections of sonatas are available in several complete recordings and whose sonatas are also often played in recitals. The comparison makes sense, even though Pandolfi Mealli's sonatas were published about forty years before those of Lonati. The latter are of considerably older date and were published when they were stylistically already rather old-fashioned. Both collections are in the tradition of the stylus phantasticus, which dominated instrumental music across Europe in the 17th century. Moreover, both were Italians by birth but were in some way or another connected to Austria.
Lonati was born in Milan and was educated as a singer and a violinist. In the mid-1660s he was in Naples, where he worked as violinist in the royal chapel and sang in a production of Cavalli's opera Scipione africano. This role was a comical one, and the singing of such roles was to be his fate, as he was physically handicapped. Soon after he settled in Rome, where he entered the service of Queen Christina of Sweden, who had moved to Rome after her abdication, following her conversion to Catholicism. It earned him the nickname of 'the queen's hunchback'. He also acted as a composer of operas and as an impresario, responsible for the performance of operas by other composers. In these capacities he worked for a few years in Genoa, where he was joined by his close friend Stradella. When the latter was murdered, Lonati was deported from Genoa and a few years later he was in Mantua. He likely spent the last years of his life in Milan. He must have had contacts to the imperial court in Vienna, as he dedicated a volume of cantatas and his violin sonatas of 1701 to Emperor Leopold I.
It is not entirely clear how much music Lonati has written, as a part of his oeuvre has been lost and there are also some works of doubtful authenticity. His extant output comprises a handful of operas, one oratorio, secular cantatas and canzonettas as well as sonatas for violin and trio sonatas. The only pieces that were printed during his lifetime were the XII Sonate a violino solo e basso, which came from the press in Salzburg in 1701. The collection comprises six sonate da chiesa (1-6) and six sonate da camera (7-12). Gunar Letzbor, in his liner-notes, emphasizes the differences between Lonati and his younger contemporary Corelli, who was a player in the orchestra in Rome, which was directed by Lonati as concertmaster.
It seems useful to quote what he has to say about them. "After a year spent studying Lonati's music, I imagine an individual bursting with inner strength who fascinates people around him despite his not particularly advantageous appearance: a musician with perfect command of his instrument, self-confident in his actions, never casting the slightest doubt that his music is overflowing with emotions, affects and images. At the same time, Corelli was pursuing a brilliant career in Italy. I see him as representing the other side of the Baroque river. His art is oriented toward antiquity and therefore the glorification of external beauty. The idealised human is deified and his shapeliness idolised in body and spirit. The golden section in architecture, visual arts and music is ultimately superimposed on all manifestations of life. Accordingly, proportions rule the artistic universe and regularity and restrained thought rule the world". He adds that "[the] development of mankind around the turn of the eighteenth century veers clearly in Corelli's direction". He suggests that Lonati's decision to publish his sonatas may have been inspired by the publication of Corelli's sonatas Op. 5 that same year. He also believes that "had he published these works at the time of their composition, they would have achieved far greater acclaim".
It is no coincidence that they were dedicated to Emperor Leopold I, who was not only a great admirer of Italian music, but whose taste was also fairly conservative. Let's not forget that around 1700 the viola da gamba and even music for viol consort was still played at his court. I already mentioned that Lonati's sonatas are in the tradition of the stylus phantasticus. Lonati pays tribute to Leopold's preference for counterpoint by including fugues in all his sonatas. What is particularly important is his frequent use of scordatura: in five of the sonate da camera and in the last of the sonate da chiesa scordatura is required. This was very much a tradition in violin music of the Bohemian/Austrian violin school, and especially prominent in the oeuvre of Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber.
Lonati's sonatas undoubtedly reflect his own brilliance as a player. The use of scordatura attests to that, but also the frequent double stopping in nearly every movement of these sonatas. Only the Sonata No. 6, the last of the sonate da chiesa, is largely devoid of counterpoint. Several sonatas open with a pedal point over which the violin plays virtuosic figurations, as if the player is given the opportunity to warm up and get used to the key. The sonate da chiesa comprise five movements; the opening movement usually consists of several sections in contrasting tempi - one of the hallmarks of the stylus phantasticus. There are quite some movements with dissonances, known in Italian music as durezze, such as in the largo of the Sonata No. 1 and the alemanda of the Sonata No. 7. Part of these sonatas's virtuosity are also wide leaps and quick alternation between high and low registers. The Sonata No. 2 is notable in that in the presto section of the opening movement Lonati divides the continuo part into a figured tenor part and a fundamental bass line. This may explain the participation of Peter Trefflinger playing the viola da braccio. Unfortunately this is not further explained in the liner-notes.
In the sonate da camera, whose number of movements varies from four to seven, the alemanda seems to be given central place, as it is always the longest. Several movements have a variatio, in which Lonati demonstrates the then revered art of variation and diminution, which both have their roots in improvisation. Here is a connection to the opening of some sonatas with a kind of improvisation over a sustained note, as mentioned before. Here some of the other movements also comprise several sections. Overall, the sonate da camera are considerably longer than the sonate da chiesa. The last sonata of the set is by far the longest and may well be the longest ciacona in history. In another recording only the first movement is marked as such, but as the basso ostinato figure of the first movement, where it is repeated 50 times, returns after a break in a later movement, it is well justified to consider this entire sonata as one ciaconna. It takes more than 26 minutes here. The opening movement is divided into seven contrasting sections. The second and third movements consist of four sections each, and the concluding sarabanda is followed by a variatio. It is the last of a sequence of dances, each of them based on the same basso ostinato, which has appeared another 32 times just before the start of that sequence. It is a most remarkable piece, which requires the utmost from the interpreter.
One can leave it to Gunar Letzbor to convincingly explore the features of these sonatas. No doubt his love is the music of the late 17th century, in particular that written in Austria and Bohemia. He earlier recorded Pandolfi Mealli's sonatas, in which he emphasized the dramatic and theatrical aspects. He does so here as well. The contrasts within these sonatas, often following each other attacca, come off perfectly. These are technically brilliant and musically highly compelling performances. As impressive these sonatas may be from a technical point of view, they are much more than mere demonstrations of technique. There is no lack of expression here, and some slow movements are of great beauty. The sostenuto from the Sonata No. 1 has a wonderful vocal quality; it could be a song or a hymn, and maybe we meet here Lonati the singer.
Lonati's music is exciting, and so are the performances. Don't miss them.
Johan van Veen (© 2021)
Relevant links:
Ars Antiqua Austria