Luogo e data di registrazione		Studio Wien-Film, Rosenhügel, Wien (Austria) - 11-14 febbraio 1966 (Concertos) Palais Schönburg, Wien (Austria) - 26-29 gennaio 1971 (Sonata)
	Original Editions		- Archiv Produktion | 198 370 | 1 LP | (p) 1967 | ANA | (Concertos) - Archiv Produktion | 2533 086 | 1 LP | (p) 1972 | ANA | (Sonata)
	Edizione "Codex"		Archiv Produktion "Codex" | 453 170-2 | durata 67' 40" | LC 0113 | 1 CD | (p) 1996 | ADD | stereo
	Executive Producer		Prof. Dr. Hans Hickmann (Concertos); Dr. andreas Holschneider (Sonata)
	Recording Producer		Dr. Gerd Ploebsch
	Tonmeister (Balance Engineer)		Harald Baudis (Concertos); Hans-Peter Schweigmann (Sonata)
	Recording Engineer		Hans-Rudolf Müller (Sonata)
	Cover		Pierre Subleyras: Fantaisie d'artiste, les attributs des Arts (detail), Musée des Augustins
	Art Direction		Fred Münzmaier
	Note		Original-Image-Bit-Processing - Added presence and brilliance, greater spatial definition

ORIGINAL EDITIONS 1 LP - 198 370 - (p) 1967 1 LP - 2533 086 - (p) 1972

Treasures from Archiv Produktion’s Catalogue A rare and valuable collection of documents is the pride of any library or archive. CODEX, Archiv Produktion’s new series, presents rare documents in sound from 50 years of pioneering recording. These recordings have been digitally remastered using original-image bit-processing technology and can now be appreciated in all the richness of their original sound-image. They range from the serene counterpoint of a Machaut, the intensely spiritual polyphony of a Victoria, to the imposing state-music of a Handel. For the artists on Archiv Produktion recordings, a constant aim has been to rediscover the musical pulse of past times and to recreate the spirit of past ages. In this sense each performance here - whether by Pro Musica Antiqua of Brussels in the 1950s, the Regensburg Domchor in the 1960s, or Kenneth Gilbert and Trevor Pinnock in the 1970s - made a vital contribution to the revival of Early Music in our time. CODEX highlights recordings that were unique in their day, many of them first recordings ever of this rare and remarkable repertoire, now appearing for the first time on CD. A special aspect of the history of performance in our century can now be revisited, as great moments from Archiv Produktion’s recording history are restored and experienced afresh. Dr. Peter Czornyi Director, Archiv Produktion TARTINI - NARDINI: Violin Concertos · Violin Sonata Giuseppe Tartini, who was born at Pirano in 1692 and died at Padua in 1770, is of great interest not only as one of the foremost violinists of the 18th century, but also as a composer, and as the founder of a system of violin playing which spread throughout Europe, pointing forward to the violin technique of modern times. Another violinist Whose influence was far-reaching was Tartini’s pupil Pietro Nardini, who was born at Livorno in 1722 and died at Florence in 1793. He, together with Locatelli, probably did most to prepare the ground for the virtuoso technique of Paganini, and as a composer he was important in connection with the evolution of Viennese Classicism. The violinist of today is strongly attracted to early music. For one thing the technical and tonal challenge is fascinating, as he/she attempts to revive the ancient technique of playing a short-necked violin with an old-style bow, which has its own interpretative characteristics, for another thing, early music pre-supposes improvisatory ability in the performers, not only in the realization of the accompaniment from the figured bass, but to a far greater degree in the fashioning of the melodic line. There are numerous theoretical examples illustrating the art of ornamentation as practised in earlier times, but it is far less common to discover complete works with all the ornamentation appertaining to them, and to be able to apply them in performance. The source material is often scattered throughout the world, and assembling it requires an immense amount of patient labour. The present recording is a living example of this. Both Tartini and Nardini were praised especially by their contemporaries for their inspired playing of Adagios, by which is meant principally not the use of particular techniques of dynamics, tone colouration or vibrato, but the art of decorating the simple melodies of slow movements and giving them fresh nuances of meaning. In the Works of both composers there are written-out examples of how this principle was put into practice - the task was to locate them. The earliest work in this recording is the Concerto in G major, dating from the middle period of Tartini’s creative career. The library of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna possesses a complete set of manuscript orchestral parts of this work, from which it may be concluded that they were used at the concerts given in Prague during 1724 to mark the coronation of the Emperor Charles VI. A noteworthy fact is the careful marking of parts for the first-desk artists playing together with the soloist, in comparison with the rest of the parts reserved for the musicians who joined in only the tutti passages. The solo part contains an ornamented version of the slow movement, so only the cadenzas were needed for our recording, and these were taken from Tartini’s Traité des agréments. Far more difficult was the task of reconstructing the Concerto in D major which, with its themes based on broken triads, probably belongs to Tartini‘s last period of creative activity. Two authentic scores are in existence: one in the archives of the Capella S. Antoniana in Padua, the other in the library of the Paris Conservatoire. This work, with its use of wind instruments and divided strings in the Padua score, seems to occupy a special place among Tartini’s many concertos. The Paris manuscript, however, contains only a straightforward string accompaniment in four parts. Closer inspection led to the surprising discovery that in the Padua score, where the divided string parts are always written in the same staves, two different versions of the accompaniment were clearly written above one another: the earlier handwriting gives the text of the Paris score note for note, while the later handwriting provides a richer accompaniment with the addition of wind instruments. The harmonies in this version are sometimes different, so the two versions cannot have been used simultaneously. Evidently the later version with fuller string accompaniment together with wind instruments was simply entered into the score without the original version being eliminated. The revision was probably the work of Tartini’s pupil and successor at the Capella S. Antoniana, Meneghini, who is known to have made arrangements of other works by Tartini. There appeared to be no ornamented version of the slow movement in existence until, thanks to a valuable suggestion from Mr. Alan Tyson and the kind assistance of M. A. Rosenthal in Oxford, one was obtained from Berkeley University, California, where it forms part of a collection of 18th-century Italian manuscripts in the University’s possession. The Concerto in E flat major by Nardini is accompanied by strings and two horns, and the only set of orchestral parts is the property of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna. Nardini was summoned to Vienna in 1765 for the wedding festivities of the Emperor Joseph II and possibly played it there; the manuscript parts remained in Vienna. It has, however, been necessary to add short fermatas, transitional passages, and the capricci. The latter, as Tartini wrote in his Traité and as we can see from his own works and especially from those of Locatelli, were of considerable length. (A wellknown example of this kind of “capriccio” is the extensive harpsichord cadenza in Bach’s Fifth Brandenburg Concerto.) Those recorded here are from a collection of caprices in the possession of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, and their style suggests that they were probably composed by Nardini himself. This recording demonstrates not only the evolution of the solo concerto of the Padua school (Tartini and his pupils), but also the richness of the ancient art of ornamentation, reproduced from authentic sources. Nardini’s Sonata in D major was first printed by Cartier in 1798 with reference to an older edition from 1760. This particular sonata appeared in Cartier’s collection with six others “avec les Adagios brodés”, that is to say with a very frugal version of each introductory adagio and a richly embellished one printed above it. These embellishments probably represent the high point of this development in the 18th century, which often went beyond the limits of good taste. Nardini, however, does not try to outdo his tutor Tartini in any conceivable way, as can be seen from the embellished slow movements he prepared. It is the duty of a musician not to lose sight of the poetical content and musical cohesion of a piece of music despite the rich scroll-work it may have, and above all not to make the embellishments a virtuoso end in themselves, but to employ them as an amplification ofexpression. In the adagio we have presented the simple version, reserving the elaborated one for the repetition. At the cadenza fermata between the first and second allegros we have inserted stylistically authentic examples from the collection of 246 Fantasie e Cadenze by Bartolomeo Campagnoli (1751-1827), a pupil of Nardini’s. In closing, a few remarks about the instruments: The Capella Academica plays valuable Italian and German instruments belonging to the Akademie für Musik in Vienna. They correspond to 18th-century principles of construction with their short necks, thinner bass bars and differently shaped bridges; these instruments are played with bows of corresponding design, which are held in the Italian manner, above the nut. The wind instruments, too, are originals, the horns belonging to the Haydn Orchestra in Eisenstadt and kindly lent by the Provincial Government of the Burgenland; the oboe, which is the property of H. G. Stradner, was made by A. Grenser (1720-1807). The violin, built by André Klotz in 1760, has been maintained in its original form, and with its still short neck slightly set back, the lengthened fingerboard and narrow bass bar. It represents the classical type of violin as we know it from Mozart’s original violin, which can be seen today in the Mozarteum at Salzburg. This type most probably also corresponds to Tartini’s and Nardini’s instruments, of which one (although now altered) is kept at Piran. The bow, which is extremely light, is thin and bent inwardly and has an elegant swan-neck tip. It has its counterpart in the bows used by Tartini which still exist in the Conservatorio “Giuseppe Tartini” in Trieste. However, as important as the instrument as such is the manner in which it is handled, and here we can see a particular preference for the light manner of holding the bow in the so-called “Italian” style of the 18th-century, which is similar to the present day’s with the exception that the bow is held a bit further up away from the frog. Another preference is a concentration of movement in the flexibility of the wrist, as opposed to more than a necessary minimum of movement of the arm itself. We chose continuo instruments to suit the violin: the cello from Santo Seraphin (in contrast to the violin, however, it had not survived unaltered, but has only been restored to its original state), the positive organ with its typical registration (8' Gedackt, 4' Principal, 2' and 1' stops) and the two-manual Kirckman harpsichord. In the case of the Nardini sonata we thought it appropriate to use the “piano” of the later 18th century, the fortepiano, as an accompanying instrument; it was just then beginning to compete with the harpsichord in this function. The connection of Nardini’s composition with Classicism is thereby emphasized; at the same time the difference between the customary sound of today’s violin and grand piano and the sonority of the two historical instruments is underlined. The concert pitch adopted in Vienna in former times seems to have been higher than in other musical centres - as it is today - so that it almost corresponded to our modern pitch. This fact is proved by a number of wind instruments of the period which have come down to us with two tuning pieces of different lengths, the shorter of which enables the instrument to play at almost exactly present-day pitch. The instruments of the Capella Academica are therefore tuned to a’ = 440. Eduard Melkus (1967/72) (Translated from the German)