Chris L Beckwith writes:

>Speaking of which, I came across the following ' new releases" review
>on angelfire.com.  Yet another Romanescu entry in the baroque beauties
>sweepstakes? I must confess, I'm intrigued.  Anyone have it? Uccellini:
>Sonatas / Romanesca

Well, of course people have it...  I mean, we treat all of this music
and the major recordings in the Early Music FAQ.

I am not that impressed with Manze in Italian violin repertory.  He usually
comes off too melancholic to me, although that works OK in the Germans.  As
someone else mentioned, the safest bet after his Biber is his Schmelzer.

That said, the virtuoso orientation of Uccellini is a pretty decent fit
with Manze, who seems to revel in the more bizarre (can we gather that he
will record Farina soon?).  It is probably a decent choice for the curious,
although there are Uccellini recordings by the Arcadian Academy and the
Italian group Conserto Vago as well.  In many ways, Uccellini would be the
Italian most comparable to Biber, principally in his soloistic orientation
and coloristic bent.  Of course, Uccellini is also of the previous
generation, but that reflects generally the earlier development of the
violin in Italy.  The Italians older & younger than Uccellini, such greater
figures as Marini & Legrenzi, probably have more to say, but Uccellini's
time was a pivotal one technically.  One is of course tempted to view all
of this work as summarized by Corelli, but Marini and his generation is
quite impressive on its own.

That's where the FAQ narrative on these styles begins, ahistorically but
on a name, with the music of Corelli:

   http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/dhm77007.htm

I thought Manze's Marini was almost uniformly languid and quite a blow to
Marini's stature.  But of course all of this music is rather late for what
we really concentrate on....

Todd McComb
[log in to unmask]