BEING GUIDED BY THE LIGHT

Description

The concertos recorded here are clearly Italian in style, often reminiscent of Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons'. This collection of concertos was long believed to be lost, and its existence was questioned several times. However, it was finally found in its entirety in the musical and theatrical library of Stockholm. Another copy also exists in Regensburg, in very poor condition and incomplete. The concertos on this disc are resolutely Italian in style. They regularly evoke Antonio Vivaldi's "Quattro Stagioni" violin concertos. If one examines the instrumentation of De Croes' concertos, they could be described as "concerti grossi". This is also how they appear in the RISM (Répertoire International des Sources Musicales). However, the term is not entirely appropriate. In a concerto grosso, the two solo violins are practically on an equal footing alongside two accompanying violins. De Croes deviates significantly from this pattern, as the first solo violin does most of the work while the second solo violin makes a very limited contribution. Therefore, the concertos have more the structure of a violin concerto than a concerto grosso. De Croes also plays with the distribution of roles between the different violin parts. In the first concerto, the second ripieno violin is given a more important role than its colleague, the first violin. By unveiling and recording De Croes' violin concertos, we hope to help give them a prominent place in today's repertoire. They largely deserve it.