When Cardinal Ottoboni died in Rome in 1740, he was in possession of a huge library of music for which he was the Patron. Part of these works were twelve sonatas that had not seen much play save by a few associates of the composer. The bulk of the music was bought by the English musical scholar Edward Holdsworth.
Over the next nearly two centuries the works passed from owner to owner, until, at a Sotheby’s auction in 1918 they were purchased by the renowned musicologist of the time, Newman Flower. Now, Flower was a Handel scholar and spent most of his illustrious career studying and promoting Handel’s work, so many other arrangements in his possession were left by the way-side to wither in obscurity. Following Flower’s death, much of his collection was passed on to the Manchester Library. It was there in 1973 that another musicologist, Michael Talbot, came across the twelve sonatas in question, and he was struck by the name on the sheets:
Antonio Vivaldi.
The twelve works, which have come to be known as the Manchester Sonatas, represent some of Vivaldi’s most admired works of chamber music at the end of the Baroque era. They had remained mostly unknown in other people’s possession, and then were nearly lost to time in Manchester University’s Harry Watson Music Library until Talbot pulled them from the darkness.
It was in January of 2019, that two Canadian masters entered the studios in Mirabel, Quebec, to record their arrangements of these lost classics. Mark Fewer the violinist and Hank Knox on the harpsichord.
The recordings are superb, and they move sometimes in unexpected and exciting ways. Knox’s harpsichord builds an elegant and large architecture for the arrangements, but his playing is alive, and there are moments when he seems to strike at the keys, elevating the bass and harmonics into a soundscape greater than what you expect from a single instrument. He goes from gentle stream to raging storm with utter control and elegance.
Fewer’s violin is the voice of the recordings, and his absolute precision makes space for a huge brightness and energy, balancing along beautifully with the landscape laid out by the Harpsichord.
But it is how they play together, and how both artists, masters, stretch their wings and make the music their own. That is where the arrangements become something that only these two could achieve.
The recordings come with beautifully laid out liner notes which go into tremendous detail as to how the pieces were played and arranged. In fact, the notes are a treasure all by themselves.
These recordings of such historical and musical interest will make lovers of classical music grin with delight. Fewer and Knox beautifully and brilliantly arrange Vivaldi’s lost masterpieces, making the 250 years worth the wait. And as the best music always does, will likely turn the ears of people who perhaps didn’t consider themselves fans of classical, and give them a glimpse of a world of art that had remained hidden, and was then brought back into the light.