Handel's Violin Sonatas
Se in fiorito ameno prato
28 tracks and just an hour to explore Handel through the lens of a violinist with continuo. This new release from Arcana presents Handel’s solo violin sonatas alongside a few bonuses, including arias arranged for violin, and the prelude HWV 572 performed on lute. The team here includes Gian Andrea Guerra on violin.
Previously, I’d held Andrew Manze’s Handel disc in high regard, playing with Richard Egarr (Harmonia Mundi). The Quartetto Vanvitelli includes cello, harpsichord and organ, and lute in addition, giving this production a bit more color (not all, thankfully, playing throughout, for variety’s sake). All around, I found Guerra a fine baroque violinist, with a good, clear tone, and in pieces like HWV 364a, he provides good dynamic shading even in the faster movements like the final Allegro. His accents in this same piece are surprising but work well.
The first Allegro from HWV 371 includes some Italian influences in a few ornaments, tying these pieces to Handel’s appreciation of Italian music during his Roman sojourn. The Larghetto from the same sonata adopts a singing style through his playing, offering a significant amount of color that the composer never asks for within the score. But that’s the art of historical performance, finding the opportunities within a basic framework to move us, the audience. I think Guerra does so admirably. The support from his continuo players should also be noted, for the way they get “out of the way” before coming in for the final cadence. Nice!
In the first Allegro of the G minor sonata, HWV 368, the double stopping is clean. I appreciate how transparently the engineers have captured the continuo separately from the violin, allowing them to weave in and out with dynamics independent of one another in a way that translates well in the recording. The filigree of notes in the violin part in the third movement are arrestingly well-rendered; this is Handel navigated by a master. The inclusion of the aria “Cara speme, questo core” is another addition, but one I think the sonata can accommodate. I can’t say how common it was to play arrangements like this, but to me it’s more than appropriate to want to use one’s instrumental powers to render the emotional content of a sung piece by yourself. When we’re not in direct appreciation of Guerra’s playing, the other element that takes our attention is the composer’s own fine writing, the harmonic direction he pulls us, with surprises well-intentioned to keep us in focus.
Quartetto Vanvitelli end the sonata HWV 368 with the final Allegro which for me shows the composer’s ability to outshine the Italian master who, during his trip to Rome, was still famous, Arcangelo Corelli. Again, the way this group terraces the instruments rendering the bass line is clever in its effect on dynamics. Guerra is a master, giving us the sense of hearing this piece played by the likes of a Veracini, a Tartini, or any other of the famed Italian violinists who could conjure the spirit of fire in their playing.
I’d encourage you to seek out the scores to any of these pieces and follow along with Vanvitelli to recognize how much they are contributing themselves to the music, and not only in the repeats. The freshness of these performances is a direct result of Guerra’s convincing adoption of an idiomatic style, turning these scores into his own masterworks highlighting the violin. Given that Handel’s publisher tried selling these as appropriate for multiple instruments (flute, oboe, or violin), know that under this quartetto that they clearly make the case for the violin as the ultimate solo voice.
This recording sets a new standard for the interpretation of Handel’s violin sonatas and highlights the best of historical performance practice. This recording is a treasure!
