An Englishman Abroad Brescianello: Overture-Suite; Chaconne in A; Caldara: La Verità nell’Inganno – Ouverture (ed. Chandler); Matteis the Younger: Concerto for Violin, Strings & Continuo in B flat; La Verità nell’Inganno; Purcell: Chacony; Telemann: Ouverture-Suite in G, TWV 55:G5; Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in E minor, RV277 ‘Il favorito’ La Serenissima/Adrian Chandler (violin) Signum Classics SIGCD 751 88:06 mins (2 discs)
The title of this album refers to Nicola Matteis the Younger, the English-born son of an Italian father of the same name who settled in England during the 1670s. Both were violinists and composers. There is an element of conjecture in Adrian Chandler’s accompanying historical narrative, yet he has put together an entertaining programme. Matteis the Younger left England towards the end of the 17th century and was shortly after appointed principal violinist of the Vienna Hofkapelle and director of instrumental music. He died in Vienna in 1737.
Matteis is represented by a Violin Concerto and dances from one of the many court ballets. The Concerto is attractive, but it is the ballet music which more readily engages attention and makes us long to hear more. Vivaldi’s well-known Violin Concerto in E minor, Il Favorito, appears here, Chandler surmising that Matteis might once have played it. Chandler himself is the expressive soloist here. Comparably speculative is the inclusion of a characteristic orchestral suite by Telemann.
Speculative, too, is the inclusion of a suite by Antonio Brescianello who, in Chandler’s words, ‘might have come across the music of Matteis’, though musically the Suite holds its own here. Chaconnes by Purcell and Brescianello frame a programme where the strings of La Serenissima are responsive to nuance and congruent in sound.
Nicholas Anderson