Blai Justo, Elisa Joglar, Bernard Zonderman - Juan De Ledesma: Sonatas para violin y bajo (2009)

Posted By: Designol

Date: 9 Aug 2021 09:25:19

Blai Justo, Elisa Joglar, Bernard Zonderman - Juan De Ledesma: Sonatas para violin y bajo (2009)

The revival of Spanish music of the Baroque period continues moving forward into the Classical era with this premiere recording of sonatas for "violin y bajo" – violin and bass – by Juan de Ledesma. The sonatas were rediscovered only in the late 1980s, and they're very elegantly presented here in a package adorned by a reproduction of a marvelous French fan of the period. There isn't anything of earthshaking importance among the five sonatas on the disc, but they're attractive pieces with some challenges for the violinist, and both players of the instruments and those with collections of Spanish music will find the release of interest. The booklet notes by violinist Blai Justo (in English, French, and German, with Spanish and Catalan additionally available online) point to Corelli's influence, but also note the presence of the galant style of the period, and it is the latter sound, with its atmosphere of charm and its relaxed procession of contrasting two-measure phrases, that predominates. The players do well to avoid a harpsichord accompaniment, using either a combination of cello and guitar or one or the other instrument alone. No evidence is adduced for the authenticity of this practice, but it makes musical sense: it results in a chamber-duet feel, whereas a keyboard continuo plunking out chords would have worked at cross-purposes with the music. Each sonata is in three movements, with a few Spanish-style surprises like the Boccherini-style "Minué" third movement (track 3) of the Sonata in A major for violin and bass. Justo executes the profusion of ornaments smoothly, but he's not served well by the sound environment of the church of Notre-Dame de l'Assomption in Basse-Bodeux, Belgium; it is a chilly, cavernous space entirely inappropriate to chamber music written for convivial gatherings of well-off patrons.

Review by James Manheim, Allmusic.com

Review by Robert Maxham, Fanfare Magazine

Blai Justo’s own notes to his program of “Spanish Violin Music from the Time of Ferdinand VI” make clear the position of Juan de Ledesma (c. 1713-1781), who led the viola section (in preference to playing violin) in the Spanish Chapel Royal. A pupil, during the end of his student years, of Michele Geminiani (Francesco’s brother) and therefore a musical descendant of Arcangelo Corelli, Ledesma represented the Italian tradition, though nuanced, as Justo points out, with Spanish inflections.

Ledesma’s five sonatas, rediscovered by Lothar Siemens a quarter-century ago, and so recherché as not to receive even a mention in William S. Newman’s comprehensive study of the Baroque sonata, fall into three movements bearing Italian tempo indications (except for the finale of Sonata No. 3, marked Minué ). According to Justo, the unfigured basses suggest that the harpsichord could be omitted; in its place, he substitutes guitar, which he believes doesn’t challenge the dominance of the violin and cello. Bernard Zonderman plays on a Baroque guitar in the sonatas in A Major (No. 1) and D Major and a “pre-Romantic” one in those in E-flat Major and A Major (No. 5); in the Sonata in F Major, only cello accompanies the violin.

The program opens with the First Sonata; its moderately paced first movement, in its forward looking style, sounds a great deal like the sonatas of Giovanni Battista Somis, a composer who, though Corelli’s own pupil, looked forward rather than backward as did his fellow student, Francesco Geminiani (as in Somis’s sonatas, too, the majority of Ledesma’s sonatas begin with a moderately paced introductory movement followed by an expressive slow one and a strutting finale). Justo encrusts its chunky lines with spiky ornamentation, plays the second movement with bracing energy, and imparts jaunty verve to the technically more challenging finale (adding harmonics, perhaps a personal touch, for extra buoyancy). The violin and cello toss motives back and forth in the slow movement of the Sonata in E-flat Major, providing opportunities for cogent dialogue between Justo and Joglar (the movement ends only after a brief cadenza). As in Somis’s sonatas, the composer imparts extra energy to the finale by means of running passages in triplets. Tartini’s sonatas, roughly contemporaneous, often employ basses that look so simple as to suggest that they might be omitted with little loss to the musical argument (Andrew Manze played the “Devil’s Trill” unaccompanied on Harmonia Mundi 907213, Fanfare 21:5). Justo and Joglar play Ledesma’s Second Sonata with such alertness in the dialogue, and the composer has created such full sonorities for the two instruments that listeners may hardly miss the guitar. The Fifth Sonata, at more than 15 minutes the longest, explores perhaps the most sensitive affects in its slow movement; Justo graces its finale with brilliant off-the-string ricochet-like runs, more reminiscent of the 17th-century German school than of the 18th-century Italian one (including the works of such advanced technicians as Corelli’s violinistically exhibitionistic pupil Pietro Locatelli). The duo (without the guitar) plays the Fourth Sonata’s Andantino dolce with pointed, though genial, wit.

Justo plays the program on a Baroque-style violin made by Dmitry Badiarov in 2003 (from which he draws a tone that falls closer to that produced on modern instruments than it does to the once signature whining and wheezing of Baroque ones); Elisa Joglar plays a 1758 Benoit Fleury cello, and Bernard Zonderman plays a 1996 five-course guitar modeled after a 17th-century Italian prototype and a 1995 six-string guitar modeled on guitars by an 1800 Parisian maker. The engineers have balanced these instruments (while making the guitar sound more discreet than do the two outer parts); all seem somewhat distant, re-creating the aural impression a listener might receive in a live performance. Warmly recommended generally and urgently recommended to aficionados of the Baroque era’s violin literature.

Review by Robert Maxham, Fanfare Magazine

Blai Justo, violin
Elisa Joglar, cello
Bernard Zonderman, guitar

Date of Recording: 11/2006
Venue: Notre-Dame de l'Assomption, Basse-Bodeux

Tracklist:

Juan de Ledesma (1713-1781)

Sonata a Violin Solo e Basso No. 1 in A major
01. I. Andantino (2:07)
02. II. Allegro (4:28)
03. III. Minue (4:41)

Sinfonia a Violino Solo e Basso No. 3 in E-flat major
04. I. Allegro (5:49)
05. II. Largo dulce (4:15)
06. III. Allegro (2:59)

Sonata a Solo con Basso No. 2 in F major
07. I. Allegretto (6:10)
08. II. Andantino (5:56)
09. III. Allegro (4:15)

Sonata a Solo per il Violino e Basso No. 5 in A major
10. I. Andantino-Allegro (6:37)
11. II. Andante (3:45)
12. III. Minuet (5:50)

Sonata a Violino Solo e Basso No. 4 in D major
13. I. Allegro (4:46)
14. II. Andantino dulce (3:31)
15. III. Allegro (3:30)

EAC log

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 2 from 29. April 2011

EAC extraction logfile from 7. November 2013, 17:32

Blai Justo, Elisa Joglar, Bernard Zonderman / Ledesma - Sonatas para violin y bajo

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Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Installed external ASPI interface

Used output format : Internal WAV Routines
Sample format : 44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo

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Range status and errors

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Extraction speed 8.0 X
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Test CRC 5B4A308A
Copy CRC 5B4A308A
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No errors occurred

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DR log

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2018-03-15 23:39:50

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Blai Justo, Elisa Joglar, Bernard Zonderman / Ledesma - Sonatas para violin y bajo
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR12 -1.36 dB -20.27 dB 2:07 01-Sonata a Violin Solo e Basso No. 1 in A major; I. Andantino
DR14 -1.75 dB -20.18 dB 4:28 02-II. Allegro
DR13 -1.61 dB -19.63 dB 4:41 03-III. Minue
DR13 -3.02 dB -21.20 dB 5:49 04-Sinfonia a Violino Solo e Basso No. 3 in E-flat major; I. Allegro
DR12 -6.54 dB -22.91 dB 4:15 05-II. Largo dulce
DR14 -4.16 dB -21.97 dB 2:59 06-III. Allegro
DR14 -3.76 dB -21.22 dB 6:10 07-Sonata a Solo con Basso No. 2 in F major; I. Allegretto
DR15 -4.29 dB -23.95 dB 5:56 08-II. Andantino
DR14 -3.11 dB -21.55 dB 4:15 09-III. Allegro
DR14 -3.67 dB -22.01 dB 6:37 10-Sonata a Solo per il Violino e Basso No. 5 in A major; I. Andantino-Allegro
DR14 -7.49 dB -26.78 dB 3:45 11-II. Andante
DR13 -6.10 dB -22.84 dB 5:50 12-III. Minuet
DR13 -3.80 dB -19.71 dB 4:46 13-Sonata a Violino Solo e Basso No. 4 in D major; I. Allegro
DR13 -7.42 dB -26.45 dB 3:31 14-II. Andantino dulce
DR14 -0.50 dB -19.13 dB 3:30 15-III. Allegro
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 15
Official DR value: DR14

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 686 kbps
Codec: WavPack
================================================================================

All thanks to original releaser - Pr3ss

More interesting music in My Blog

2000s Baroque Classical Lossless Juan De Ledesma CD-Rip + Scans WavPack MP3 Blai Justo Elisa Joglar Bernard Zonderman