Giardini: Chamber Quartets

Album review

Felice Giardini was one of those numerous continental musicians who moved to London in the mid-18th century, a period when the English capital was a hotspot for all European artists : Geminiani, Abel, Johann Christian Bach, Handel and later on Mozart and Haydn among so many others sought and oftentimes found fame and fortune playing and composing for the ever-growing upper middle class’ private homes, as well as the numerous theatres that were opened to cater to an always higher number of concertgoers of all social classes. As from the 1750s in the English capital, Giardini became famous as a skilful and refined violinist in a very short time and he began to attend the cultural and aristocratic circles of the city. This allowed him to obtain the licence of King George II to publish several collections of pieces both vocal and instrumental, among them the Six Sonatas for Harpsichord and Violin Op. 3 which stand out from the other pieces: in these pieces the harpsichord is not used for the basso continuo as usual, but it is used as an obbligato instrument in dialogue with the violin. In 1778 Giardini worked on two collections of quartets for different formations, among which the six quartets of Op. 21 – three for harpsichord, violin, viola and cello and three for harpsichord, two violins and cello. Thanks to his aristocratic and sometimes even royal patrons, Giardini was able to carry on composing his works, and in 1782 he managed to publish a new collection of six quartets: Op. 23, dedicated to the Prince of Wales, the future George IV. This collection included two quartets for violin, two violas and cello, a rare instrumental combination (i.e. with two violas). In 1784 he left London and went on a six-year European journey with his patrons. But when he returned to London in 1790, his luck had turned. He tried to work as an impresario but it was not a success: English people’s musical tastes had changed in the meantime and there were new musicians and composers on the stage. For these reasons in 1792 Giardini, almost an eighty-year-old man, ran the last risk in his life and left for Saint Petersburg with an opera buffa company. On the basis of the scarce information about the adventure in Russia, one may assume it was not a success. Felice Giardini died forgotten and poor in Moscow in 1796. This album presents works composed all over his creative life, in particular one of these quartets with two violas, another one with obbligato harpsichord. The listener might possibly hear some similarities with Boccherini in the instrumental writing and the light tone of so many movements. © SM/Qobuz