For this recording, the basso continuo in the 'Pastorale' sonata is played on the organ instead of the harpsichord, due to the sonata's particular atmosphere.
Composition History
The famous 'Devil's Trill' Sonata by Tartini, of which no autograph manuscript exists, was first published in 1798 in Jean-Baptiste Cartier's collection L'Art du Violon.
Composer Biography
Giuseppe Tartini, the composer, focused his entire musical output on the violin, with 125 violin concertos and about 200 sonatas for violin and basso continuo forming the core of his work.
Composition History
The 'Devil's Trill' Sonata is associated with an anecdote that Tartini dreamt the devil played a wonderful piece for him, which he then tried to transcribe from memory.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Tartini's sonatas often contain literary or imaginative suggestions, such as the 'Didone abbandonata' sonata, which recalls Pietro Metastasio's famous dramma per musica.
Compositional Technique
The Sonata in A major 'Pastorale' is the only one of Tartini's violin sonatas that requires 'scordatura,' a non-standard tuning where the G and D strings are raised to A and E to create a bagpipe effect.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Tartini, the composer, would read works by Petrarca or Pietro Metastasio's dramas before composing, to find inspiration for his music.
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