Masters” who are said to have “approved” the adaptation for flute proposed in the edition, without, however, providing any indication as to who these ‘eminent masters’ might be, or who might have written the transcription. The tenth sonata, in F major, is transposed one tone above the Roman edition of the original collection for violin, that is, into G major, more appropriate for performance on the flute, avoiding the problem of passages which would otherwise have gone below the lower end of the instrument’s range. “Divertimenti per camera a violino, violone, cimbalo, flauto, e basso o per mandola e basso”, the second work by Bologna composer Pietro Giuseppe Gaetano Boni (a member of the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna who may later have studied with Corelli), offers further evidence of the popularity of the transverse flute in Rome beginning in the early decades of the century. The anthology was in fact published in an elegant format by Roman publisher Antonio Cleton, presumably in the year 1717; it contained twelve sonatas for violin and bass, but the composer suggested that the solo part could alternatively be played on the mandolin or the flute. The fact that these compositions could be adapted for the transverse flute is confirmed by the subsequent (undated) publication by Walsh & Hare of six of the twelve “Divertimenti” under the title “Solos for a german flute…compos’d by Sig.r Gaetano Boni”. The “Solos” were received so favourably by London buyers that John Walsh reprinted them under the same title in 1731. Sonata II in E minor, performed in this recording, was included in the anthology, appropriately transposed by the British printer from the original key of F minor into E minor, more appropriate for performance on the transverse flute. Rome is also the city where Italy’s first collection of sonatas composed expressly for the transverse flute was published. This was the “Sonate per il flauto traversiero col basso…opera XII” (Rome, 1730), by British flutist, oboist, violinist and composer Robert Valentine (1671-1747), who moved to the capital of the Papal State and was known as Roberto Valentini or Valentino in an Italianised version of his name. Abandoning the compositional style in the manner of Corelli that characterised his previous collections of sonatas for the recorder, in opus 12 Valentini exhibits a refined, highly various, elegant style incorporating virtuoso passages, in many ways already asserting the new gallant style which was particularly well-suited to the technical and expressive peculiarities of the transverse flute. Continuing our excursus, we now turn our attention to the “Six Solos for a german flute a hoboy or violin with a thorough bass for the harpsicord or bass violin being all choice pieces by the greatest authors and fitted to the german flute by Sig.r Pietro Chaboud”, parts one and two, published in London in 1723-25 by John Walsh. Very little is known about Pietro Chaboud’s biography, though recent studies have cast a little light on the topic. The oldest documents in which he is mentioned present Chaboud, in the years 1679-85 and again in 1690, as a player in the musical chapel of San Petronio Basilica in Bologna. In 1702 he appears in London playing the transverse flute, identified by the nickname “Bolognese the traverse” in a list of payments due for a private concert held by the Duke of Bedford, while in 1715 and again in 1718 his presence is documented in the British capital playing the flute and the bassoon, respectively, in the orchestra of the Italian Opera at Haymarket Theatre and later (once again as flutist and bassoonist) in a small group of selected Italian instrumentalists performing Niccolò Haym’s anthem “O Praise the Lord in his Holman”. As the title of the “Six Solos” suggests, they were a “selection” of sonatas (probably for violin) written by a number of “great authors”, who inexplicably remain anonymous, which Chaboud had adapted for transverse flute. We may, luckily, find a clue as to the identity of these ‘famous’ but unfortunately unnamed composers in the 1730 publication by Michel Charles Le Cène of Amsterdam of a collection entitled “XII Sonate a flauto traversié o violino o hautbois e basso continuo delle composizioni degli signori Francesco Geminiani e Castrucci”, the content of which coincides exactly with the sonatas appearing in the two above-mentioned anthologies published previously in London. The fifth sonata in the second part of the Solos ranks well above the others in its inventiveness and vigorous discourse and in the vivacity and variety of its melodies, compositional characteristics in which Marcello Castellani’s clever analysis has identified a number of distinguishing features of the compositional style of Roman musician Pietro Castrucci. In 1716 Carlo Tessarini, who is thought to have been born in Rimini in 1690, was “violin master” and “concert master” at the Conservatory of the Pio Ospedale dei Derelitti ai SS. Giovanni e Paolo (known as the Ospedaletto). In 1720 he was engaged as a violinist in the Ducal Chapel in San Marco. In 1737 he was “director of instrumental music” in the residence of Cardinal W. H. Schrattenbach in Brno. In 1743 he founded the Accademia degli Anarconti in Fano and was elected as its permanent director. His considerable international fame is demonstrated not only by the publication of his works abroad, but by his performances in Paris, Frankfurt and Arnhem, in Holland, where we lose track of him in 1766. The “XII Sonate per flauto traversie e basso continuo da Carlo Tessarini di Rimini virtuoso, opera seconda” were printed in Amsterdam by Le Cène with no date, but with plate number 547, referable to the year 1729. Though this was a ‘bootleg’ edition of the works, intercepted by this uninhibited publisher and printed without notifying the composer or offering him an opportunity to check them, the anthology was a resounding and long-lasting success, as demonstrated by the second printing a few years later, around 1736, in London, again by Walsh, and by the numerous hand-written copies in circulation reproducing parts of it. The sonatas were in fact composed in a pleasing style characterised by a lively and highly varied repertoire of sound images, vigorous discourse, brilliant virtuoso passages in the fast movements, and flowing, singable melodies in the opening slow movements, composed in a style which leaves plenty of room for the performer’s extemporaneous ornamental flourishes, in accordance with the taste of the day. The “Signor Brivio” who composed the sonata that closes our selection may perhaps be identified as Milanese musician Giuseppe Ferdinando Brivio, a violinist, composer, impresario and singing teacher whom many researchers believe to have spent the years 1742-5 in London. The sonata in D major proposed in this recording was included in the miscellaneous collection “Six Solos four for a german flute and a bass and two for a violin with a thorough bass for the harpsichord…”, which included not only the sonata in question but compositions by Händel, Geminiani and Somis (London, 1730, Walsh & Hare). The obvious importance of melodic invention, especially in the opening Adagio (in the lovely form of a “pastorale”) and the driving impulse of the rhythm in the fast movements produce the value and attractiveness of a musical idea perfectly suited to the expressive possibilities of the transverse flute in this pleasing composition.
Liner Notes by Enrico Casularo