Venetian composer Tomaso Albinoni’s Op.10 collections of Concerti
a cinque were published by Michel Charles Le Cène in Amsterdam in 1735 or 1736, when he had already
established an international reputation through numerous collections
of similar works and Sinfonias. In many ways these
works represent the pinnacle of Albinoni’s achievements in this
medium, with their approachable technical standard useful for
amateur musicians allied to elegant melodic invention and richness
of character. Albinoni was one of the earliest composers to regularly
use the three-movement form for concertos. This had already been
used by Giuseppe Torelli in the Sinfonias written for his instrumental
groups at San Petronio in Bologna;
but with Albinoni’s wide appeal and popularity the model spread
rapidly and soon became the fashionable convention. The Concerto
Grosso genre heard in some the works on this disc were successful
in this period, based on the dynamic contrasts between ritornellos
for a larger orchestra body set against a small group of, in this
case, three violins. The principal violin takes a solo
role in only the Concerto No.8 and the outer movements
of this work do have a different feel to the others, with more
space left for the more fragile solo lines. With a fairly low
level of virtuosity demanded of the players in the other works
the feel of genteel and restrained chamber music is fairly constant
throughout.
This is not to say that the music is uninteresting. Indeed, within
his idiom Albinoni throws in some striking harmonic twists
and turns and isn’t fearful of leaning on dissonance as well,
pushing the boundaries of style of the time and anticipating
the “style gallant” which would be more a characteristic of
the mid eighteenth century. Claudio Toscani points out in
his informative notes that these works are “a strange mixture
of the old and the new”, sometimes looking back to the outmoded
contrapuntal style of the trio sonata, but also with an ear
for more recent developments. As a result these works remain
highly entertaining, filled with baroque bounce, but with
plenty of surprises.
The audiophile Arts label have once again come up with a recording
of striking clarity and transparency. The musicians are set
in a pleasant but unobtrusive resonance, and the SACD depth
is very satisfying. You have a feeling of being amongst the
musicians, which is always a bit special but can be a more
demanding listen, making you feel you should sit up and take
notice rather than putting your feet up and being a front-row
slob – never a bad thing in my opinion. A question of taste,
but to my ears the harpsichord continuo is perhaps just a
little too prominent in the balance. It is well played and
gives the music a crisp edge, but at time you fine you’ve
been listening more to its percussive contribution than to
the strings – not a hugely troubling point, but worth noting,
through probably more so for headphone listeners than when
played over speakers. The unnamed solo violins are nicely
played, and the parts are taken without an excess of extra
ornamentation. Claudio Astronio’s Harmonices Mundi play with
taste and refinement almost all of the time, with just a very
few moments where slight differences of opinion in intonation
take away some of the gloss. The sound is rich and well rounded,
especially when the continuo is joined by a discreetly placed
but warmly welcome portativo organ.
I’ve greatly enjoyed this fine if relatively undemanding disc. The
competition is not huge for Albinoni’s Op.10, and I would
certainly choose this over the I Solisti Veneti recording
on Erato, which is becoming rather long in the tooth. Those
looking to supplement their other Albinoni Opus numbers and
the more ubiquitous Vivaldi collections will do very well
with this desirable collection.
Dominy
Clements
Harmonices Mundi/Claudio
Astronio 
[72:12] 
