Tessarini: Twelve Violin Concertos, Op. 1

The early-eighteenth-century Italian concerto is generally known through the works of only a handful of composers represented in modern editions. This partial view does not do justice to a vast repertory of Italian concertos that has yet to be studied in a broader perspective. Carlo Tessarini (ca. 1690–ca. 1767) was one of the leading violinists of the generation after Vivaldi. He held major posts in Venice during the 1720s and later in Urbino, establishing an international reputation by travels to Paris, London, and the Netherlands. His widely disseminated instrumental music shows that he was always at the vanguard of developing styles; these concertos published in Amsterdam in 1724 are imaginative examples of the Venetian solo concerto, highly varied in mood and idiomatic in violin writing. The volume represents the first modern edition of a collection by Tessarini.