Search - Koopman: cnd/Amsterdam Bar.. :: Locatelli: The Italian Music Master in Amsterdam

Italian with a Dutch Twist

Timothy D. Hinck | Chattanooga, TN USA | 02/25/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"As a huge lover of the Italian Baroque and a former organ student of Matteo Imbruno in Amsterdam, I was interested to review this recording of Pietro Locatelli's music entitled "The Italian Music Master in Amsterdam". I have also been quite a fan of the instrumental fireworks of Ton Koopman's Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. This recording does not dissapoint in its showcase of both Koopman's spirited improvisational leading and Margaret Faultless's impressive Baroque-violin technique. The story behing the music is also quite interesting and the Italian-Dutch connection is at theme of great importance in Baroque music.



I couldn't, however, manage to swallow this very decidedly Dutch interpretation of Italian music. 10 years ago, perhaps it would have been one of the better recordings of Italian Baroque instrumental music. But with recent recording by Italian musicians (see Fabio Bondi and his Europa Galante, fore example) this Dutch recording falls quite short. There is a precision and a "North-European pace" to this recording. The playing is a bit too Faultless (no pun intended) and restrained. This is especially evident at those dramatic, very "Italian" cadences as in the Concerto opus 7 number 6. There is a violence missing in those intense passages of brutal string spicatto. It lacks some of the operatic drama of some of the contemporary Italian bands."