This collection of early solo violin music performed by German violinist Rebekkah Hartmann seems to have been undertaken out of sheer enthusiasm, and it's clear Hartmann is a player capable of the sustained concentration and technical toughness needed in this kind of repertory. The program contains a variety of pieces from the late 17th and early 18th centuries. None really reflect the birth of the violin, which had been around for over a century by the time the earliest pieces here were written. The works by Westhoff and Biber, however, are among the first works written for solo violin. The program as a whole doesn't make a great deal of sense; it mixes works from the German unaccompanied-violin school with other random Italian and French works. None of the music is terribly well known, and Hartmann claims five world premieres, which is all to the good. But the chief attraction is probably the pair of violins Hartmann plays: an Amati and a Stradivarius, with their distinctive voices deployed to good effect and recorded with fine engineering support by the Solo Musica label. She uses a Baroque bow in most of the pieces, except for the final Partite for violin solo in D minor by Haydn's contemporary Friedrich Wilhelm Rust, which indeed seems to demand it less. The violins' strings, however, are modern. Hartmann doesn't quite capture the esoteric, experimental quality of the German repertory; the Biber Passacaglia, detached from the Mystery Sonatas with which it's usually presented, plods a bit here. But the entire project reflects a nice exploratory spirit on the part of a young violinist who could have played it safe, and if it draws more listeners to the fascinating music of the late 17th century, more power to her.
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