Liana Mosca, Antonio Mosca, Luca Pianca, Giorgio Paronuzzi - Geminiani: Sonatas Op. 4 Vol. 1 (2012)

Francesco Geminiani claimed to be a pupil of Corelli but there seems to be no documentary evidence of that. There can be no doubt that he was strongly influenced by Corelli: as a token of his admiration he arranged Corelli's sonatas Op. 5 as concerti grossi. Some of these are quite well-known and so are his six sonatas Op. 5 for cello and bc. Otherwise little of his output is part of the standard repertoire of today's performers.
I was not a little astonished to read in the booklet to the Stradivarius disc that this recording is the first of the complete Op. 4, a set of twelve sonatas for violin and bc. It is only logical to compare them with those by Corelli. The latter's sonatas are in four to six movements; Geminiani's sonatas come in three or four. Some movements are quite long, sometimes over five minutes, something which happens very seldom in Corelli's sonatas. But the main difference is that Corelli's sonatas are clearly structured whereas Geminiani's sonatas seem highly irregular. Enrico Careri, in his liner-notes, considers this the main reason for the lack of interest in them. He refers to critical remarks of Charles Burney and then states that the criticism was "about irregularity in Geminiani's rhythms and melodies, asymmetric musical phrases, and above all, 'a confusion in the effect of the whole, from the too great business and dissimilitude of the several parts'." He studied the music and came to the conclusion "that its irregularities and asymmetries should not be considered negative, but distinctive aspects of a complex way of writing music which is never predictable".
"Their irregularity and asymmetry do not depend on how many bars there are, but the systematic use of elisions, contractions, syncopation and retardation, further complicated by numerous ornaments and diminutions", Careri goes on. If one listens to these sonatas shortly after having heard Corelli's Op. 5, the difference is quite startling. Time and again I felt that I was listening to specimens of the Sturm und Drang in which different ideas follow each other in almost random order. There are indeed many irregularities in rhythm and melodic progress but there are also quite some unexpected pauses. Technically these sonatas are certainly not easy either as they include much double stopping. Geminiani "continually surprises us by avoiding the easy solutions and tedious redundancy typical of much music at the time". The latter part of this quotation is entirely the author's view but he is absolutely right about the surprising effect of Geminiani's sonatas.
I have been completely captivated by these pieces and the brilliant way they are performed by Liana Mosca and her colleagues. This project should encourage other performers to explore Geminiani's oeuvre which is not that large but is definitely worthwhile.
–Johan van Veen