Less well-known perhaps
than similar works by Handel and Corelli,
these Concerti grossi are ripely imaginative
and warm textured works that repay close
listening. Geminiani’s late works were
not universally well received but listening
now one is struck anew by his invention
and mastery of genres – by his Telemann-like
command of national styles and musical
traits. He is commendably unafraid to
vary texture, to delay the tutti and
to play with expected notions of form;
in the Fourth, recorded here, we have
an unusually shaped multi-partite finale,
which employs a fetching Pastorale at
its centre. So Geminiani makes for ingenious
listening and the little D minor shows
immediately in its Andante first movement
(the first of two) how well he writes
for woodwind (specifically the flutes)
and for yielding and pliant string responses.
Similarly the wandering harmonies of
the Affettuoso of No. 6 vie for interest
with the opening adagio section of the
final, sixth movement. This employs
old English viola da gamba sonorities
in a conspicuously successful pan-European
fusion.
Coupled with these
two Concerti grossi we have The Enchanted
Forest, a two-part orchestral work that
is derived from a ballet-pantomime first
performed in Paris in 1754. It took
Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata
and over five acts expounded scenes
from the Crusaders’ siege of Jerusalem.
There are some musico-pictorial moments
– there’s a tremendous storm, almost
to rival Handel, and a tree-felling
episode as well - but it’s difficult
otherwise to relate the surviving music
to any other particular scene. What
we have now is essentially an orchestral
work of great attractiveness. The horns
of original instrument La Stagione Frankfurt
are in good flaring form in the First
Part Allegro moderato [No.4] and Geminiani
cultivates real expressive nobility
in the opening Andante affettuoso of
the Second Part – the melody has a kind
of semi-explicit vocal impress – an
operatic aria without words. The Second
Part ends in triumph, taken at a firm
tempo, its expressive potential intact.
The recording is sympathetically
balanced and Capriccio’s booklets, as
ever (I find) are well designed and
thoughtfully annotated.
Jonathan Woolf
La Stagione Frankfurt/Michael Schneider 