Anton Steck, Christian Rieger, Markus Mollenbeck - Francesco Geminiani - Violin Sonatas, Op.5 (2007)

German Baroque violinist Anton Steck, a protégé of Reinhard Goebel, has the right look for Geminiani: stylish, rather foppish rather mysterious, with long hair. Geminiani was a true virtuoso, a student of Corelli who, along with numerous other Italian musicians, moved to prosperous London in the early decades of the eighteenth century. He authored an influential treatise on violin technique, but he was a free spirit who never quite mastered the knack of cultivating either aristocratic patronage or the favor of new concert-going audiences; in later years he preferred to make a living as an art dealer. By the mid-century his style was old-fashioned; the music here has little of the ingratiating galant quality, and it's all about technique. The Op. 5 sonatas, here presented in transcriptions for violin and continuo from the original versions for cello, are brilliant works, with technique deployed in service of a glib elegance rather than sheer flash. Each sonata has four movements, and the slow movements are mostly very short -- just breathing spaces. The heart of the action is in the outer Allegros, where simple lines are festooned with a huge variety of ornaments that, despite the works' publication for Geminiani's audiences, would have been way out of reach of average players. Steck takes Geminiani's Allegro movements at something like a Presto clip, executing the thornier passages with flair and with a kind of implied effortlessness that one imagines as close to the image Geminiani himself presented in concert. The continuo accompaniment consists of cello and harpsichord, which one might think would compete too much with Steck's playing. Actually, it's just right; the sonatas are not about heroic exertions but about sparkling utterances, and the fuller continuo sound fits the carefully controlled dimensions of Steck's playing. The real violinistic fireworks come in the Sonata for Violin Solo in B flat major, and neither is Steck flummoxed by these. One hopes for more Italian Baroque recordings from this fine performer, for this one looks like a standard.