Tartini: Violin Concerto in Bb major, D117

These recordings with the unforgettable Salvatore Accardo as soloist, confirm with their aural qualities and lyricism, a motto of Tartini’s: “Per bon sonare, bisogna bon cantare” (To sound good, one must also be able to sing).

Born on Merseyside in 1974, Adrian Chandler studied both modern and Baroque violin at the Royal College of Music with Rodney Friend and Catherine Mackintosh. Whilst still a student at the RCM he founded the period ensemble La Serenissima with whom he has since performed numerous solo recitals and Vivaldi concerti in major festivals around the world.

His most recent CD releases feature virtuoso sonatas by Albinoni, Pisendel and Vivaldi (AV0018), Vivaldi Concerti and Arias (AV0031), religious concerti by Vivaldi (AV2063), the first two of three award-winning records (AV 2106 & 2128) charting the development of the North Italian Violin Concerto (NIVC) and Vivaldi cantatas and sonatas (Linn CKD 281). His performances have also been broadcast by BBC Radio 3, Radio Scotland, Dutch Radio, Radio 3 Belgium, Radio France, Danish Radio, Classic FM and Japanese TV. Adrian was awarded a three year AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) fellowship at Southampton University in order to research the development of the North Italian violin concerto between 1690 and 1740. The culmination of this project is the release of this CD, the third of the North Italian Violin Concerto series.

Among the great Italian 18th-century composers Giuseppe Tartini (Pirano d’Istria, 1692- Padova, 1770) is the one who most explicitly focussed his production on his own chosen instrument, the violin, neglecting, or treating as secondary, genres that in his day were very popular. 135 violin concertos and about 200 sonatas for violin and basso continuo form, in fact, the main bulk of his output.

With the exception of the Concerto D 96 - which opens the present recording - all the Concertos of our 2-CD box set belong to the first period of Tartini’s career. They are works in which the virtuosity of the outer movements alternates with Tartini’s melodic creativity, which seems to unroll in an unstoppable wave of emotion and pathos. Some of these concertos are recorded for the first time, and all are 24 bit - 96 Khz recordings.