Robert Valentine (c.1671-1747)
Chamber Music
Enrico Casularo (transverse flute), Anne Kirchmeier, Caroline Emery (recorders), Jonathan Nubel (violin)
Ensemble Afflatus
rec. 2017, Hôtel de Ville, Sierre, Switzerland
Brilliant Classics 97683 [59]
We are familiar with the case of foreign-born composers who came to England to work – Handel, being the most famous, but others also such as Geminiani, Bononcini, Porpora and so on. Rather less well known are the movements of native English composers who travelled in the opposite direction, other than Dowland and Delius. Robert Valentine was one of those, born in Leicester, but who moved to Italy some time before 1700 and settled in Rome, where he stayed until his death in 1747. Although noted for his sizable number of compositions for the recorder, published in various centres such as London, Amsterdam, and Paris as well as in Italy, he seems also to have been an accomplished violinist and oboist. It’s thought that, as the latter, he participated in the performance of Handel’s oratorio La resurrezione when that composer was in Rome.
This disc gives a good overview of his sonatas and concertos – he seems to have written little else – for recorder, flute, and violin, tracing the evolution of his style in accordance with changing taste in the first half of the 18th century. The Concerto in D major for flute which opens this programme sits somewhere between Corelli and Stradella. The two Sonatas from his Op.13 set could just as easily be thought of as by Handel, similar as they are to those of his Op.1, while the Concerto in B flat at the end of the disc features rococo figurations for the solo recorder and violins, demonstrating an advance towards the galant style in the middle of the century.
The pieces for flute here are played by Enrico Casularo with a neat, incisive tone that carries Valentine’s simple, approachable melodies well, as they are not airy or diffuse in sonority. Particularly in the E minor Sonata Casularo creates an attractive rippling effect. In the D minor recorder Sonata Anne Kirchmeier also produces a pleasantly refined effect. However, the unison opening of the A minor Sonata for two recorders without basso continuo elicits a contrastingly wheezy quality in Kirchmeier and Caroline Emery’s hands. It offers a welcome alternative colour in this recital, settling down into an ear-tickling mellifluousness as the divergent polyphonic lines meld together without friction. In the concluding Concerto for recorder Kirchmeier carries over a richer, almost reedy timbre that makes a persuasive case for the work, the recorder’s generally less versatile nature certainly not suffering by comparison with the flute here. Jonathan Nubel treats us to a bold attack at the outset of the Sonata for violin, with its double-stopped chords and lively basso continuo support from Ensemble Afflatus. Even in the yearning Andante, Nubel is warmly expressive and generous in the tone he draws from his instrument.
The performances are recorded in what sounds like quite a big open and empty hall. That provides a bright aura around the animated readings of the small-scale Concertos, even if the performers sound a little distant. But the smaller forces for the Sonatas do come across as somewhat overwhelmed by the large space. Nonetheless these are alert and spirited accounts – true to the eponymous ‘inspired’ name of Ensemble Afflatus, particularly from its harpsichordist – of some well-crafted if not groundbreaking music.
Curtis Rogers
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Contents
Concerto in D major for transverse flute
Sonata for recorder in D minor Op. 13/6
Sonata for violin No.6 in D major ‘La Frascati’
Sonata for transverse flute in E minor Op. 13/1
Sonata for two recorders No.6 in A minor
Concerto No.2 in B-flat major for recorder
