Thanks to his Devil's Trill, Giuseppe Tartini was one of the few Italian Baroque names known to a general classical listenership a couple of generations ago. He was eclipsed by Vivaldi and the other virtuoso violinists of the Italian school, but he has begun to benefit from something of a revival; various recordings have appeared, sans the Devil's Trill. This one is part a series covering Tartini's voluminous output; with two CDs worth of violin concertos, it includes several world premieres. This is good news, for Tartini does not sound much like Vivaldi (beyond a few broad strokes, like opening phrases in octaves), Veracini, or Geminiani. He has a claim to stylistic progressiveness with the simple melodic orchestral material with which the outer movements of the concertos begin, but the simplicity doesn't carry through the movement: it is used only to set the stage for the violin's entrance and to give it the maximum impact. The slow movements are heavily ornamented but quite fluent. One question with this music is how much of the modern virtuoso's dramatic approach should be applied, and the Italian historical-instrument group
L'arte dell'Arco, with its three violinists, comes down on the side of restraint; the solo violin parts are smoothly executed and seem to grow organically out of the orchestral expositions. It's at an opposite pole from the way someone like
Oistrakh would have played the Devil's Trill, and it may leave some listeners wishing for more emotion while delighting others with the pure skill and unity of the whole set of performances. The two CDs were recorded in different locations, a studio in the case of the first disc, and a church for the second; both result in live environments that impart a metallic tang to the music, but the second disc is preferable.