Joseph Herrando - Six Sonatas for Violon d'amour and Basso Continuo

Joseph de Herrando (1721 – 1763), 

Six Sonatas for violon d’amour and basso continuo (First recordings)

Marianne Rônez, Violon d’amour

Elisabeth Taschner, violoncello

Ernst Kubitschek, harpsichord/fortepiano

about this recording:

Probably very few people today have every heard of Joseph de Herrando. During his lifetime, however, he was Spain’s most famous violinist. And he was also successful outside of Spain as a composer and teacher, as evidenced by his violin method, Arte y puntual explicación del modo de tocar el violín, which was published in Paris in 1756.

Herrando’s name also appears in the memoirs (1747 and 1758) of the great castrato Carlo Farinelli, who was at the Spanish court in the services of the ailing King Ferdinand VI. Farinelli soon called Herrando to his castle Buen ritiro to become one of his sixteen violinists – certainly a great honor for our musician.

reviews:

Freshly fallen in love with the viola d’amore

 Marianne Ronez gives her attention to a delightful collection of Sonatas by Joseph Herrando (1721-1763). The stylistic italophil Spaniard dedicated the sonatas to the castrato Farinelli, after he had ended his singing career, the English music writer Charles Burney found him in Spain bowing the viola d’amore. On the ornamentation, on the diminution Farinelli understood certainly, and within this range lays the strengths of the recording of Marianne Rônez. (Reinhard Kriechbaum in Concerto 2/3 2005)

This baroque Spanish music for five-stringed violon d'amour, tuned in fifths is well worth having for the six interesting Sonatas contained on the CD. The liner notes provide excellent background information on the pieces and the musical context of the time in Spain.

Whether the Violon d'amour should be included among the wider relatives of the Viola d'amore is a matter of debate.