John Holloway, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Jane Gower - Dario Castello, Giovanni Battista Fontana: Sonate concertate in stil moderno (2012) [Hi-Res]

John Holloway’s recordings for ECM New Series have included many exhilarating and inspired accounts of baroque small ensemble music, and cast new light on composers including Biber, Schmelzer, Veracini and Leclair. If little is known about the lives of Dario Castello and Giovanni Battista Fontana, subjects of Holloway’s newest disc, surviving works by both men show them to have been remarkable composers for the violin. Two books by Castello of Sonate concertate in one to four parts, in stil moderno with continuo, were printed during the composer’s lifetime. For this album, Holloway has selected a number of sonatas from this collection to couple with analogous works by Fontana, some originally for violin as well as some conceived for other string or wind instruments. Along with solo violin sonatas, he has chosen six of these sonatas for violin and basso continuo which can be regarded as precursors of the later trio sonata or even as early examples of that genre.

In the late 16th century new musical developments were taking place in Northern Italy, particularly Venice, where (as liner writer Peter Holman points out), forward-looking musical institutions increasingly preferred to use the violin combined with wind and continuo instruments rather than the lower members of its own family.

About Dario Castello and Giovanni Battista Fontana, two Italian composers from the turn of the 17th century, musical scholarship hasn’t much to tell us. We know as little about Castello, who was leading an ensemble at St. Mark’s around 1629, as we do about the exact birth and death dates of Fontana, who came from Brescia and probably perished during the 1630 outbreak of plague in Padua. Yet there are a number of surviving works by both men that reveal them to have been remarkable composers for the violin. Two books by Castello of sonate concertate in one to four parts, in stil moderno with continuo, were printed during the composer’s lifetime. In his new recording violinist John Holloway has selected a number of sonatas from this collection to couple with similar works by Fontana, some originally for violin as well as some conceived for other string or wind instruments. Along with solo violin sonatas, Holloway has chosen six of these sonatas for violin and basso continuo that can be regarded as precursors of the later trio sonata or even as early examples of that genre. They also serve as proof that there is still undiscovered territory on the early music map.

In the present recording, made at the St. Gerold monastery in the Austrian Alps, the long-established musical team of Holloway and harpsichord Lars Ulrik Mortensen is joined by Jane Gower playing the dulcian, the renaissance predecessor of the bassoon. The ensemble understanding revealed here by this trio is at once remarkable – in their hands, this is living, pulsing music, dynamic and constantly in movement. “The joys of performing this music are many and various,” Holloway says in his performer’s note, “its mood changes and improvisatory character demand, and reward, a willingness to take risks, to live dangerously, in the moment. It is noticeable how much ornamentation is written into the music, and indeed the juxtaposition of sometimes wildly ornamented passages and simple, plain phrases is surely important for the element of dramatic contrast which is so essential to this music (...) The art lies in the ‘spontaneity’ in the performance of the composers’ ornaments. It’s difficult to put into words the pleasure and enjoyment we have got from this project.” That sense of pleasure is tangible.

'Hats off to John Holloway... His experience shows in remarkably distinctive ways. It isn't merely his command and his deep affinity for both his violin and the music. It is his sound: burnished by time, crystal-clear in the centre but faintly soft-edged; free, never forced... an essay in good taste.' (Gramophone)

John Holloway, violin
Lars Ulrik Mortensen, harpsichord
Jane Gower, dulcian