Fabio Biondi, Telemann Fantasias (Glossa)It's the sound of this disc that imprssed from the first sonorous notes. Whether that is the tone of the violin (by Ferdinando Gagliano, Naples, 1767), the acoustic of the Italian church in which it is recorded or some engineering technique, I don't know. I am not one to get involved in CD v. vinyl debates unless it is to say that the sound of reggae on the Trojan label is somewhow more authentic in its original format which is a small part of its charm. But I'd offer this recording, possibly above any others I've heard, as a case in CD's favour.
12 Fantasias for solo violin are very much to put put alongside those of Veracini, reviewed here not too long ago, and bear comparison with the Bach Sonatas and Partitas. Whether they quite have the architecture of Bach I don't know, but they are written in the same spirit of exploration and discovery whether in the impressive slow movements or, more predominantly, marked allegro, presto or vivace. But in whatever tempo, Fabio Biondi is clear and disntinctive in his performance. It is a pity we can't see his fingers moving or the virtuoso technique that is demanded in Bach, too, in which an accompaniment of a lower string is played at the same time as the theme on higher parts of the stave.
In the middle tempi these are dances but there is time for some showmanship in faster pieces and, from time to time, occasion to relax and reflect in brief passages of in a more langorous mood. I can't hear colour in music, I'm not convinced it's there and suspect it might be a figment of the synesthiastic imagination, but I appreciate atmosphere and this recording has plenty of that. It becomes a late addition to the shortlist for Best CD of the Year although it is going to have to impress further to outdo the Errolyn Wallen, Hans Abrahamsen and new Couperin records already in contention. It does, however, justify a place alongside them.
A new departure on one or two discs I've bought recently has been the booklet being glued into the folding cardboard case. I wasn't immediately enamoured of this idea but it is preferable to the unsatisfactory arrangement on another recent purchase on which it was all but impossible to get the booklet back into the standard issue plastic case.
Telemann's prolific output doesn't diminish the admirable invention of music such as this. These fantasias rate highly among that small sample of his work that I have, which began with a sublime Trumpet Concerto over thirty years ago. It is not as easy to characterise, or define a personality in, his work than it is with Handel, Bach or Vivaldi but here is an account of him that elbows its way back in among them flamboyantly.