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GRAMOPHONE (07/2014)
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CHAN09801
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Reviewer: Lindsay Kemp
Francesco Mancini (1672-1737) spent all of his working life in his native city
of Naples, notably as Alessandro Scarlatti’s
successor as director of
the Royal Chapel from 1725, but it was in London that his XII Solos for a Violin
or Flute were published in 1724. Perhaps he had hopes of making a living in that
city, so welcoming to Italian musicians, but in the end he never went. Today he
is cited as an early member of the Neapolitan school that did so much to push
musical language from Baroque to early Classical, but that is perhaps more
evident in his operatic and church music than these sonatas, which seem fairly
standard mid-Baroque fare.
Standard, but not uniform. Some
movements, such as the gigue finale of Sonata No 6, sound like Handel; the first
movement of Sonata No 4 sounds like Vivaldi; and the last movement of Sonata No
12 plays triple-time rhythmic games. But although Mancini clearly didn’t lack
ideas, and his sonatas are skilfully and often gracefully made, I doubt if many
will be eager to hear eight of them in one hit – at least, not as presented by
Gwyn Roberts and her three colleagues from Philadelphia-based Tempesta di Mare.
For despite that her nimble fingers touch three different recorders and a flute,
and that the continuo instrumentarium of keyboards, lutes and cello is dutifully
shuffled, there is a lack of variety, wit and sometimes sheer softness that
makes this a difficult disc to love. I can’t help feeling that Mancini’s sonatas
would be better served as part of a mixed anthology, as for instance in Bart
Coen’s ‘The London Flute’ (DHM, 9/13) and by being treated to a more sensitive
use of phrasing, articulation and dynamics (ditto).
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