12 Fantasias for Violin Solo. Maurice Clare Rediscovered

Description

During the COVID-19 lockdowns, Nimbus Records unearthed long-forgotten treasures from its archives. Over 50 recordings are now being released gradually. Some date back to the label's founding in the late 1960s. The original analog tapes, typically one-inch four-track (30 ips), were easily digitized. We decided to archive them at 192 kHz to preserve them for future generations. The early digital tapes from 1981/82, recorded on U-Matic cassettes, sometimes required touch-ups to restore missing signal passages, but, stored in the same warm, dark room since their creation, they were, on the whole, successfully digitized.Regarding this particular album, it is unknown how and why violinist Maurice Clare came to the Nimbus studio in Birmingham, nor why the music of Georg Philipp Telemann was chosen as the repertoire. The 1974 recordings indicate that Fantasias No. 1 to 5 were recorded on Monday, August 26, Fantasias No. 7 to 12 on Tuesday, August 27, followed by a day without recording. Fantasia No. 6 was recorded on Thursday, August 29, 1974.Scrawled notes on the last page hint at future projects: 24 sonatas by Tartini, quartets and quintets by Boccherini with a "very, very good student" on second violin and "Amo" (Fleming) on cello. Unfortunately, these projects never came to fruition.