A MUSICAL SMORGASBORD

Italian violinist Fabio Biondi speaks to Robin Stowell about recording Swedish Baroque composer Johan Helmich Roman’s assaggi – solo musical morsels to whet the appetite

H ailed by Swedish writer Abraham Sahlstedt as ‘Stamfader för Musiken i wårt land’ (‘the founder of our country’s music’), Johan Helmich Roman (1694–1758) laid the foundations for an increasingly rich musical life in 18th-century Sweden and was among the first native Swedish composers to gain international renown. His diverse career was influenced substantially by his travels throughout cosmopolitan Europe.

Encouraged by King Charles XII of Sweden to travel to England (1715) to broaden his musical experiences, Roman played in Handel’s orchestra at the opera company the Royal Academy of Music and was influenced by London-based Italian composers such as Bononcini and Geminiani. He returned to Sweden in 1721 and gained promotion to kapellmeister of the royal chapel in 1727. He made a European grand tour between 1735 and 1737, during which time he amassed a collection of music for the Swedish Royal Court Orchestra and absorbed new musical trends – most notably galant Neapolitan elements such as simpler, melodically orientated textures – into his compositions.

His significant contributions to his country’s musical profile included raising the standards of music making at the royal chapel, organising public concerts, encouraging orchestral, opera and ballet performance and the use of the Swedish language as a medium for vocal music, and facilitating music education opportunities.

PHOTOS EMILE ASHLEY

‘A RECORDING IS AN IMPORTANT LEGACY OF A PARTICULAR PERIOD IN A PERFORMER’S WORKING LIFE’

Amid Roman’s substantial, wideranging compositional output are his various assaggi for solo violin, seven of which have been recorded by Fabio Biondi. Like Biondi’s discs of Bach’s solo violin works, this recording is another positive outcome from the Covid-19 pandemic, lockdown having allowed him the time to contemplate new solo projects and study intensely the complexities of the repertoire involved. ‘The situation re Roman is funny,’ he says. ‘When I recorded Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas, I also took those works on to the concert platform. One promoter did not like the idea of all-Bach programmes and asked me also to include something else from the same era. Of course, I’d normally propose one of Telemann’s fantasias or Biber’s Passacaglia, but I knew that Roman had composed various pieces for solo violin, so I investigated some of them and included examples in my concerts. Audiences approved.’

Biondi collaborated with Swedish musicologist and Roman authority Eva Helenius regarding the particular manuscript sources that he should consult. Despite the variety of influences that Roman absorbed, Biondi believes that Italian idioms predominate in the assaggi: ‘They seem very close to those of Tartini’s sonatas that were intended to be played without any basso’ (‘senza bassetto’ – according to Tartini’s letter of 24 February 1750 written to poetphilosopher Francesco Algarotti). Biondi believes that solo performance of these sonatas requires ‘manipulation’, by which he means the judicious addition of harmonic and contrapuntal elements, ‘otherwise the music can sound harmonically or texturally impoverished’. He adopts a similar approach with Roman’s assaggi, adding that ‘the available primary sources raise many musical questions for interpreters to resolve’.

The assaggi do not conform to any particular established genre. Biondi opines that Roman’s use of the title ‘is perhaps a modest demonstration that these pieces are neither sonatas nor fantasias. Assaggio means “fast taste” in Italian and refers to meals consisting of many different small dishes.’ For Biondi, Roman’s tasting menu begs a free, quasi-improvisatory performing approach, bringing into play Biondi’s own individual ‘manipulations’: occasionally filling out Roman’s textures; employing flexible tempo strategies during a movement to convey perceived changes of affect; interpreting Roman’s shorthand or imprecise notation to realise multiplestopping and arpeggiando meaningfully and therefore maintain the continuity of line; introducing some repeated sections in appropriate movements for formal balance; cutting some bars in order to make a more satisfying musical conclusion (as in the first movement of the G minor work BeRI 320); and employing unprescribed techniques such as pizzicato, which Biondi feels ‘seems just right’ in the tongue-in-cheek final bars of the B minor Assaggio BeRI 324. Biondi’s ornamentation is largely in the Italian style – ‘I don’t feel a real French taste in Roman’s music,’ he comments. He is sparing about the addition of ‘ad libitum’ cadenzas suggested by some editors, often preferring to follow fermatas with a dramatic silence. ‘Our society is scared of silence,’ he says with a wry smile. In concert, however, Biondi tries to add ornamentation extempore, ‘to make each performance different.

It’s extremely risky and complicated, but it reflects the spirit behind this music, of course.’

For Biondi, nothing in performance can replace being on stage and relating to a live audience. He fully appreciates that the recording process, with all its potential for endless, minute patching, ‘can transform almost anyone into a perfect musician’, but he considers laying down a recording as ‘an important legacy of a particular period of a performer’s working life’. He also appreciates that the outcome is ephemeral and he often feels frustrated at having to wait for the final product to appear, not least because his interpretative thoughts about the music may well have changed in the interim.

The recording sessions took place over three days in March 2023 in Mondovì, Italy, at the beautiful Sala Ghislieri (formerly the Church of the Confraternity of Santa Croce) of the Fondazione Academia Montis Regalis.

Biondi had also recorded his solo Bach disc there in June 2020, having tried more than 40 other venues to find that elusive combination of ‘nice place, good sound and silence’. He recalls the time a few years earlier when he made the recording of Telemann’s Fantasias, ‘We found a very nice church in the mountains above Lake Iseo. We were extremely happy with this arrangement until we discovered that there was a busy airport fairly close by!’

Biondi’s long-term association with his trusted recording engineer and producer Fabio Framba extends back to 2014 and their recordings of Vivaldi’s I concerti dell’addio with Europa Galante. ‘We have matching approaches to the recording process,’ says Biondi. ‘He is very quick to understand the character of sound I am looking for. We also have similar ideas about how best to convey the musical line. His background as an organist gives him a strong concept of harmony, and his role in encouraging me to emphasise, in multiple-stopping and arpeggiando passages, the fundamentals of chords has helped me enormously to clarify the progression of the harmony.’ He continues: ‘One marvellous aspect of recording solo violin music with Fabio is having the freedom and, most importantly, the opportunity to experiment and record without time restrictions.’ Roman left few tempo indications, so such freedom ‘enabled us to record some movements at different speeds, so allowing us to choose, on listening back, which tempo best suits the music’s affect. Such an approach makes sessions relaxed and never boring.’

Fabio Biondi in a recording session

For his own musical assaggio, Biondi selects Roman’s B minor work (BeRI 324) as his signature dish, ‘because its tonality gives it a strong melancholic feeling’. He also admits that it was probably the most problematic to record satisfactorily. Biondi’s seven-course menu breaks new ground by adding the D minor Assaggio (BeRI 311) to the recording catalogues. And just as a culinary assaggio highlights the creativity and skills of the chef, Biondi’s menu draws attention to his innovatory approach to performance. His accounts focus closely on the senses and bring to the table in one sitting his customary perception, imagination, technical dexterity, taste and profound artistry in a truly inspirational musical degustation experience.

WORKS Roman Assaggi à violino solo: in Amajor BeRI 301, in C major BeRI 303, in C minor BeRI 310, in D minor BeRI 311, in G minor BeRI 314, in G minor BeRI 320, in B minor BeRI 324

ARTIST Fabio Biondi RECORDING VENUE Sala Ghislieri, Mondovì, Italy RECORDING DATES 20–22 March 2023

CATALOGUE NUMBER Naïve V 8209 

RELEASE DATE 3 May 2024