Pietro Locatelli (1695-1764), from the generation after
Vivaldi, started his career as a violin virtuoso. The fine booklet notes (in German and English) provide a useful sketch of Locatelli's career, including an episode in which the violinist, insulted by what he considered a paltry gift from King Frederick Wilhelm I of Prussia, tipped the king's page with it. Later Locatelli gave up performing and embarked on a career as a teacher, composer, musical importer, and publisher in prosperous Amsterdam, but the impish, flamboyant personality revealed in that episode continued to flavor his music. The Concerti Grossi, Op. 7, were published in 1741. Transitional in style, they haven't been heavily recorded; this 1994 reading by the veteran
Kammerorchester "Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach" under
Hartmut Haenchen was valuable when it first appeared and has remained relevant as a reissue. The orchestra plays modern instruments; despite claims that it reconciles the use of those instruments with historical techniques, many of the ornaments in the music come off awkwardly, and the fast movements are over-sweet and somewhat lifeless. But the group captures the unexpected twists in Locatelli's music, which sometimes juxtaposes exaggerated slow gestures with contrapuntal writing -- hear the third movement of the Concerto Grosso in B flat major, Op. 7/2, with its mysterious sequence of slow chords resolving into a sprightly fugue. Some of the outer movements show stages in the development of sonata form, and the orchestra is sensitive to these. The treatment of the small concertino group is flexible and imaginative, often featuring a solo violin. The Concerto Grosso in E flat major, Op. 7/6, is a unique work, a little set of operatic scenes without words. The first movement deploys the solo violin, representing the mythological figure of Ariadne, in instrumental recitatives, delivered with just the right intensity by soloist Thorsten Rosenbusch. The church sound is inadequate, but the renewed availability of this release is a positive development.