Albinoni - Sinfonia a cinque opus 2 - (...)

Tomaso Albinoni - Sinfonie opus 2 Sonata 1 sol-majeur, Sonata 2 do-majeur, Sonata 3 la-majeur, Sonata 4 ut-mineur , Sonata 5 si bémol-majeur, Sonata 6 sol-mineur

Chiara Banchini violin and direction Ensemble 415 Eva Borhi violin, Peter Barczi & Patricia Gagnon violas, Gaetano Nasillo, cello, Michael Chanu, double basse Michele Barchi, harpsichord organ, Evangelina Mascardi, teorbo

Chiara Banchini celebrates Albinoni - with this opus 2 unrecorded - the unknown elder of a new generation of venetian composers (Vivaldi, Marcello, Lotti...), the initiator of a new style, lively, colorful, combining structure and ornemental fantasy, related to venetian sensuality.

This Albinoni recording is included in the range of records made by Chiara Banchini all committed to the recognition by the audience of italian violonistic repertoires - essential to musical history of violin but not enough played and known : Corelli (rome; creator of sonatas da chiesa, da camera, Valentini (Corelli’s challenger in Roma : using the rules while breaking them), Geminiani (Corelli’s student and outstanding orchestrator), Tartini (theoretian of natural in music) and now Albinoni.

About her Four violins concerti of Vivaldi last year

"Bucking the current fashion for hard-driven VIvaldi, CHiara Banchini and Ensemble 415 (all her pupils) deliver string concerto performances of airy delight. The focus is on the concerti for 4 violins from the ground-breaking set l’Estro Armonico. So many notes, interviewing; yet with Banchini’s team of soloists everything stays elegant, subtle and unclogged. The disc markes 10 years of excellent releases from this idiosyncratic French Label." Geoff Brown - The Times - UK August 2007

What these performances have in greater measure than some e rival versions of L’estro armonico are a warmth of timbre - quite distinct from that of l’Arte dell’Arco for instance - and a spirit of intimate music-making. A rewarding disc; perhaps the remaining eight concertos of L’estro armonico will follow. Let’s hope so. BBC Music Magazine - December 2007 - Nicolas Anderson