Fantastic Style - 17th Century Violin Music (Frescobaldi, Kapsberger, Schmelzer)

Harmonia Mundi's Fantastic Style is a two-for-the-price-of-one combination of two great albums by Romanesca: Phantasticus, originally released in 1996, and Schmelzer: Violin Sonatas from 1998. Phantasticus takes as its point of departure an extract from the writings of seventeenth century theorist Athanasius Kircher, who among his classification of musical styles includes reference to "stylus Phantasticus," the "most liberated form of composition, free from any constraints of text or predetermined harmony to display genius." A selection of works drawn from early Baroque composers, some barely known, but all worthy to some degree of revival, illustrate this point: works by Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli, Giovanni Paolo Cima, Dario Castello, and Giovanni Battista Fontana appear, among others. What ties them together is their looseness of form, bizarre gestures, wandering harmony, and fragmented sense of the pulse. All of these pieces are expertly played by Romanesca, and lutenist Nigel North and harpsichordist John Toll are featured in generous solo outings as well.

Schmelzer: Violin Sonatas was, in its time, an event: the introduction of a first-rate, meat-and-potatoes composer of the early Baroque whose work was then familiar to virtually no one. These sonatas, drawn mostly from Schmelzer's 1664 published collection Sonatae unarum fidium, are an ideal vehicle to demonstrate the dazzling skill of violinist Andrew Manze and present Schmelzer as the obvious forebear to Heinrich von Biber, even though no historical connection between the two is known. A clue is given in that the sonata Victori der Christen is adapted by Schmelzer's son, Andreas Anton Schmelzer, from the 10th Rosary Sonata of Biber, so perhaps the two composers were linked by something more than stylistic similarity.

Initially issued with multi-lingual booklets heavy with illustrations and examples, these two albums are presented in stripped-down form in this package, but at least Andrew Manze's booklet notes are intact. Romanesca, as a group, was one of a kind, and the unexpected death of John Toll in 2001 has unfortunately rather limited its output. While many fanciers of Baroque violin music will already have these discs, some may wish to obtain this set if they missed one, or need an introduction to what Manze aptly calls "a cabinet of curiosities," the avant-garde of the early Baroque.