Viotti: Violin Concerto No. 29 in E minor

Dynamic’s publication of Viotti’s Complete Violin Concertos comes to its conclusion. This tenth and last volume features two fine works, the Concertos Nos. 29 and 21. Last to be published, the Concerto No. 29 in E minor was probably composed around 1801. According to Baillot, Viotti played it in 1818 during his last performance for his Parisian friends. This wonderful work, in which the early concertos’ brilliant and showy virtuosity appears filtered through the experience of contemporary authors, is quite ample and seems to anticipate, for certain aspects, the great 19th-century Austro-German ”classical” concertos. The Concerto No. 21 in E Major was published for the first time in Paris in 1801. A pleasant work, it blends exquisitely lyrical passages with lively and light-hearted writing.