Sonates en trio Opus 1

Description

In 1694, Albinoni had his first printed Opus published in his native Venice, by Sala, the leading Venetian music publisher. A young 23-year-old composer, describing himself as a “dilettante veneto,” he most likely studied with Giovanni Legrenzi in his hometown, which he would rarely leave. In doing so, he followed the implicit tradition whereby every young composer begins his career by publishing a collection of 12 trio sonatas for 2 violins and continuo (as his compatriot Vivaldi would do in 1705), paying tribute to Corelli, who had established and almost sacralized this emblematic form of Baroque music through the successive publication of 4 collections of 12 sonatas each, the last appearing in Rome precisely in 1694… While the form of the collection conforms to tradition, one quickly detects a freedom of tone unknown to Corelli, revealing the future flashes of the concerti to come, and the final “sinfonie a quattro, senza cembalo” (around 1740), true string quartets without bearing the name. The composer’s marked taste for fugal fast movements (which would earn the admiration of the young Johann Sebastian BACH), and for pronounced lyricism in the slow movements, is already very much present here, before bursting forth in splendid polyphony (in 5 parts) in the following collection (Op.2, 6 Concerti e 6 sinfonie a 5, 1700). The label Brilliant has chosen to spread the 12 sonatas over 2 CDs, allowing the brilliant performers to deliver a luxuriant version here, and to revive the delightful Baroque tradition of small “ex tempore” preludes before the start of certain movements, either by one of the continuo instruments (organ, harpsichord, theorbo), or by the first violin. After two earlier releases of these works (on CPO by I Parnassi Musici, a little dry and fast – on a single CD –, then on Genuin, by the Camerata degli Amici, with 2 oboes substituted for the violins, and where half the collection is “rushed through” in 37 minutes 7 seconds!), this interpretation becomes a reference version. (Jean-Michel Babin-Goasdoué)