Locatelli – Isabelle Faust, Giovanni Antonini, Il Giardino Armonico

Accentus Music presents a 4K/UHD HDR programme dedicated to Pietro Antonio Locatelli, one of the most outstanding Italian violin virtuoso of the 18th century. Together with Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini, Isabelle Faust recorded his most demanding works for solo violin in December 2022 in the atmospheric Teatro Sociale di Bergamo.

“It feels like climbing the Kilimanjaro where there’s no oxygen anymore and when there’s really no space for the fingers whatsoever”, states Isabelle Faust.

The “Capricci”, written as cadenzas of his violin concertos Op. 3, announces and sometimes overpasses the virtuosity of Paganini’s Capricci. On the other side compositions like the concerto “Il pianto d’Arianna” use the solo violin and the strings orchestra in the most poetical way: through instrumental recitatives and refined concerto movements, describing the story of Arianna that already Monteverdi gave musical setting to in his famous vocal “Lamento di Arianna”. There are different faces of the art of composition in his works: the extreme virtuosity, poetical playing, the science of the counterpoint. Starting from a “Corellian” style, Locatelli opened the doors for future developments in Romantic era of the art of violin playing.

Pietro Antonio Locatelli
Concerto op. 3 Nr. 11 „L’arte del violino“
Concerto op. 3 Nr. 2 „L’arte del violino“
Concerto grosso op. 1 Nr. 11
Concerto grosso op. 7 Nr. 6 „Il pianto d’Arianna“

Isabelle Faust, violin
Il Giardino Armonico
Giovanni Antonini, musical direction