Pierluigi Mencattini: Giannotti

The Strad Issue: October 2024

Description: A foray into an Italian Baroque byway proves unenlightening

Musicians: Pierluigi Mencattini (violin) Labirinto Armonico

Works: Giannotti: 12 Violin Sonatas op.1

Catalogue number: TACTUS TC690790 (2 CDs)

Following their recording of Piani’s op.1 violin sonatas, Pierluigi Mencattini and Labirinto Armonico turn the spotlight on bassist/violinist Pietro Giannotti’s initial sonata set (1728), which similarly melds Italian and French taste. However, they are not persuasive advocates for his music.

Although Mencattini manages to negotiate the fingerboard with adequate facility, his intonation is unreliable and his shifting technique seems suspect, resulting in an over-reliance on open strings and some uneasy passagework above the staff. Moreover, his bow seems to remain glued to the string throughout, with a resultant lean, stifled tone that is exacerbated by a tight vibrato.

He often ignores Giannotti’s bowing indications and his rhythms do not always align with either the printed text or his colleagues’ interpretations – for instance, the rhythmic incompatibility between the violin and continuo in no.11’s Allemanda. Mencattini’s attempts to emulate French swung rhythms also fail to match those of his colleagues, too often morphing into dotted-note figures. Ensemble is often unstable, as, for example, in no.7’s Siciliana and no.12’s Recitativo.

Expressive finesse and sensitive shaping of phrases are not among Mencattini’s assets: he seems happier playing a zippy Corrente or Giga than an affective movement such as no.6’s Adagio and he makes relatively little of Giannotti’s specific expressive annotations and echo effects. He does decorate selected repeated sections and fermate and add appropriate lead-ins with some aplomb, though, notably in no.4’s Andante, but his realisation of the florid written-out ornamentation in no.1’s opening movement is ponderously metronomic. The ensemble Labirinto Armonico offers a range of continuo colours, artificially balanced and generously reverberant.

ROBIN STOWELL