Locatelli Trio, Rachel Isserlis - Pietro Antonio Locatelli: 10 Sonatas, Op.8 (1996) 2CDs, Reissue 2006

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Locatelli Trio, Rachel Isserlis - Pietro Antonio Locatelli: 10 Sonatas, Op.8 (1996) 2CDs, Reissue 2006

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If you're looking for a recording of Locatelli's complete Opus 8 Violin Sonatas, look no further. These 1994 recordings by the aptly named Locatelli Trio are not only superbly played and beautifully recorded, they have the singular virtue of being the only available recordings of the works. That's alright: with violinist Elizabeth Wallfisch at the helm, they are uniformly first-rate performances. Wallfisch is herself a superior period instrument player who balances the virtuoso demands of the music with its undeniable melodic charm and harmonic invention, and she leads cellist Richard Tunnicliffe and harpsichordist Paul Nicholson in performances that amaze as well as delight the listener. Furthermore, when the trio becomes a quartet with the addition of violinist Rachel Isserlis for the final four sonatas for two violins and continuo, the best gets even better through the brilliant interplay of two skilled soloists. For lovers of virtuoso violin music of the Italian High Baroque, this is as good as it gets. Hyperion's sound is crisp but warm, detailed but deep.

Review by James Leonard, Allmusic.com

There is a sense of the decadent about the music of Locatelli. His style is essentially post-Corellian, but with the broad lines fragmented into shorter ones, an excess of sequences and cadences, an almost mechanical handling of forms, and the element of virtuosity hugely inflated with a great deal of violinistic cliche. But decadence, we all know, can be quite fun, and it would be an austere spirit that took little pleasure in these sonatas and especially the playing of them here. Whether it is a good idea to record them in toto is another question: the encyclopaedist will relish it, and certainly complete sets of this sort are convenient for reference, but musically it makes little sense to listen to ten, or even (say) four, Locatelli sonatas straight off.

This two-disc set of his Op. 8 (published in 1744) contains six violin sonatas and four trio sonatas, three for two violins and continuo and one using the much less common combination of violin, cello and continuo. The violin sonatas each begin with a slow movement, mostly very elaborate in line (though some, Nos. 2 and 6 for example, have hints of Corellian nobility). The second movements are all rapid and energetic pieces, binary in form, full of very busy figurative writing, often with lots of double-stopping (try No. 3 for some high-level virtuoso playing) and occasionally very tortuous in manner. A number of them then have a slowish movement and most end with a quick triple-metre piece, again in brilliant violinistic style (some with a slower minore middle section).

The most attractive, I thought, was No. 5, with its interesting gestures and hints of wit in the second movement. The most demanding is No. 6 with its final minuet with variations, quite breathtaking (and improbably set in E flat, a perverse gesture): here Elizabeth Wallfisch clambers unruffled through the technical thickets, which include an extraordinary variation with trills on one string and moving parts on another and dashes from one end of the compass to the other and back again, and much more besides. This is amazing violin playing of a kind of virtuosity I do not recall hearing from a period instrument player: if there is a note out of tune on this record I missed it, and there is a sustained musical intensity, partly arising from the technical pressure, which is quite remarkable.

The three trio sonatas for two violins are not of course virtuoso music in quite the same way, and musically not generally very inventive: many movements are in a simple homophonic manner, with flowing lines and trails of suspensions, and the fugues are shortish and fairly conventional. But the third, in F minor, is quite a sombre piece, and the finales of all three are little gems of wit and inventiveness, with unpredictable gestures and the instruments chasing one another and dashing around amusingly. The Sonata for violin and cello is distinct from the rest, with a much more galant style in the opening movement and a set of variations in which different kinds of echoing phrases between the instruments are imaginatively used.

The performances are altogether admirable; no one who admires good violin playing will want to miss Elizabeth Wallfisch’s crisp, rhythmic playing, her precise articulation or her impeccable intonation or indeed her general command of the style and expressive content of this music.'

Review by Stanley Sadie, Gramophone

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Locatelli Trio, Rachel Isserlis - Pietro Antonio Locatelli: 10 Sonatas, Op.8 (1996) 2CDs, Reissue 2006

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Locatelli Trio, Rachel Isserlis - Pietro Antonio Locatelli: 10 Sonatas, Op.8 (1996) 2CDs, Reissue 2006

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