Francesco Maria Veracini (1690-1768): Sonate Accademiche, Op. 2

00:00 Sonata No 1 in D major: Toccata: Adagio e come stà, Presto, Adagio - Capriccio primo: Allegro ma non presto - Allegro - Epilogo della Toccata: Largo e nobile, Presto, Adagio - Capriccio secondo: Allegro e brillante, Più allegro 19:18 Sonata No 2 in B flat major: Polonese: Tempo giusto - Largo, e staccato - Capriccio terzo, con due soggetti: Allegro, e grandioso - Aria schiavona: Tempo comodo - Giga: Allegro assai 35:18 Sonata No 3 in G major: Ritornello: Allegro - Largo, e nobile - Capriccio quarto, con tre soggetti: Allegro - Aria rustica: Allegro 50:43 Sonata No 4 in F major: Allegro - Cotillion: Capriccio quinto: Allegro assai - Largo - Menuet (1711): Affettuoso 1:05:11 Sonata No 5 in G minor: Adagio assai - Capriccio VI, con due soggetti: Allegro assai - Allegro assai - Giga: Allegro 1:20:42 Sonata No 6 in A major: Siciliana: Larghetto - Capriccio VII: Allegro e con affetto - Andante moderato - Largo - Allegro assai 1:41:01 Sonata No 7 in D minor: Entrata: Tempo aggiustato - Allemanda: Allegro ma non presto - Largo e cantabile - Giga: Allegro 1:52:12 Sonata No 8 in E minor: Allegro - Ritornello: Largo e staccato, Cantabile, Ritornello - Giga: Allegro 2:03:10 Sonata No 9 in A major: Allegro moderadamente - Adagio - Scozzese: Un poco andante ed affettuoso, Largo, Un poco andante ed affettuoso 2:13:10 Sonata No 10 in F major: Allegro moderato - Ritornello: Largo e staccato - Allegro moderato 2:23:30 Sonata No 11 in E major: Tempo giusto - Largo e nobile - Capriccio VIII: Allegro ma non presto - Menuet affettuoso, Gavotta: Allegro, Menuet da capo 2:41:00 Sonata No 12 in D minor: Passagallo: Largo assai e come stà, ma con grazia - Capriccio cromatico con due soggetti e loro rovesci: Allegro ma non presto - Adagio - Ciaccona: Allegro ma non presto The Locatelli Trio Elizabeth Wallfisch, violin / Richard Tunnicliffe, cello / Paul Nicholson, harpsichord, organ Recorded on 25-30 June 1993, Forde Abbey, Somerset, United Kingdom For those interested in the artwork, it´s Capriccio with St. Paul’s and Old London Bridge, (oil on canvas) by Antonio Joli (1700-1777) Francesco Maria Veracini was born in Florence on 1 February 1690 into a family of musicians, and was taught by his uncle, the violinist and composer Antonio Veracini, among others. The young Francesco Maria worked in Florence until 1711 when he began to appear in Venice, and in 1714 he travelled north of the Alps for the first time, visiting London and Düsseldorf before eventually settling in Dresden. Veracini worked as a highly paid member of the Italian musical establishment at the Dresden court between 1717 and 1723, when he returned to his home city. Shortly before he left Dresden, on 13 August 1722, he threw himself from an upstairs window. Johann Mattheson claimed that the cause was a fit of madness brought on by excessive musical and alchemical studies, but Veracini suggested in later life that jealous colleagues had conspired to murder him. Be that as it may, Veracini survived and remained in Italy until 1733, when he once more travelled to London. He worked there on and off until 1745 when he returned to Italy for the last time; according to Charles Burney he was shipwrecked in the Channel, and lost his treasured Stainer violins ‘St Peter’ and ‘St Paul’. Veracini’s relatively uneventful last years were taken up with directing the music in two Florentine churches, and with writing a treatise, Il trionfo della practica musicale. He died in Florence on 31 October 1768. Burney wrote that Veracini and Tartini were regarded by their contemporaries as ‘the greatest masters of their instrument that had ever appeared; and their abilities were not merely confined to the excellence of their performance, but extended to composition, in which they both manifested great genius and science’. He added that it was ‘impossible for any two men to be more dissimilar in disposition: … Tartini was so humble and timid, that he was never happy but in obscurity; while Veracini was so foolishly vainglorious as frequently to boast that there was but one God, and one Veracini’. Veracini certainly seems to have been arrogant and eccentric, but Burney, who heard him play in London shortly before he left for the last time, realized that ‘he built his freaks on a good foundation, being an excellent contrapuntist: … the peculiarities in his performance were his bow-hand, his shake, his learned arpeggios, and a tone so loud and clear, that it could be distinctly heard through the most numerous band of a church or theatre’.