By MH94354
04-Apr-2011

A forgotten composer's brilliant sigh  

Geminiani was undoubtedly more famous as a violinist and instructor to the English than as a composer. But his lack of fame is undeserved. The Op. 5 Sonatas are a gem. They trade in the spontaneity and vivacity of his contemporaries for a measured, even melancholy tone that signals already the coming inwardness and romanticism of music.

Bronzi is an ideal interpreter of this music, both through his precise command of the instrument as by his somewhat serious and hardworking personality. (I have met him at the Mozarteum in Salzburg). The harpsichord takes second place in this recording, because its volume is slightly too low, and because of the composition itself: Geminiani was after all a violinist.

There are, in my mind, two sonatas which stand out: the C Major for its sprightliness and humor, and the minor (VI) at the very end, wonderfully played by Bronzi, almost as a lament to the forgotten and undervalued composer. Its diminutive adagio is one of the most brilliant short pieces in music history: the perfect sospiro, overcome by allegro assai that seeks to dispel the sadness, but ends in a second allegro which gives in to the very same desperation the sonata started with. But the sigh does not return - the piece ends with professionalism and dedication, just like Geminiani's life as a teacher. Never exquisitely brilliant, but hardworking and sticking to his difficult trade.
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