Inventione in A major Op. 10/1

Inventione in A major Op. 10/1
Aria(Cantabile)
Allegro-Giga( Allegro)
Recit
Bazaria Andante

Most of the composers from today’s concert programme were writing in the later Baroque period in the shadow of Monteverdi. Another influential master who preceded our concert’s featured composers was the composer and virtuoso violinist Anchangelo Corelli, with whom both Geminiani and Vivaldi studied and who also influenced for Handel. Corelli is accredited to making a major contribution to the chamber music style and form of the Late Baroque era, including the publishing of five books of violin sonatas. In the repertoire performed we see a display of Italian Baroque features such as extensive ornamentation, more expressive harmony and a clearer polarity between melody and baseline than had been heard in the Renaissance era.

We first hear from Buonaporte, this June being the 350th anniversary of his birth in Northern Italy. He was a priest and a composer who had studied theology and composition in Rome. His Inventione in A major opens with a lyrical violin melody in the cantabile Aria, followed by a combination of recitative and faster movements. The fastest passages are extremely intricate, with ornamentation and frequent double stops, yet regardless of speed each retains distinct character- the second theme from the closing Bazaria Andante being particularly infectious to the ear. Geminiani  was born in Tuscany in 1687 and was a gifted violin player as well as composer who lived and worked for a time in both London and Dublin around the 1730’s. His Sonata in C minor displays notably dissonant points of suspension in its opening Grave movement, with energetic, intricate Allegro movements to follow with sequence used as a recurring feature.
Ruah Pearson

Works in this programme:
Buonaporte Inventione in A major Op.10/1
Geminiani Sonata in C minor Op.4/9
Boccherini Sonata in D major Op.5/4
Handel Sonata in A major HWV 364
Vivaldi Sonata in D minor RV 14