Thomas Baltzar: Prelude
Johann Sebastian Bach: Praeludium
Giovanni Bassano: Ricercata
Johann Sebastian Bach: Largo from Sonata No. 3 BWV 1005
Thomas Baltzar: Praeludium
- Allemande
- Courante
- Sarabande
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sarabande from Partita No. 1 BWV 825
Nicola Matteis: Passaggio Rotto
- Positione di Voce
- Andamento veloce - Fantasia
Philip Hacquart: Sarabande
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber: Passagalia
Giuseppe Tartini: Sonata over story in 4 scenes
Henry Purcell: Prelude
Silvius Leopold Weiss: Prelude - Tombeau
Johann Sebastian Bach: Andante from Sonata No. 2 BWV 1003
Silvius Leopold Weiss: Sarabande WeissSW 18.4
Silvius Leopold Weiss: Fantasia & Fuga WeissSW 9
Johann Schop: Praeludium
Johann Sebastian Bach: Allemande from Partita BWV 1013
Thomas Baltzar: Prelude

I typically have a tendency to suffer from ear fatigue when listening to recordings of solo stringed instruments. After a few minutes my focus wanes and I gradually lose interest in either the music or the performance. The lack of harmonic layers, and textural variety or complexity is usually what does me in. But this recording, despite lasting over 1 hour and 43 minutes, doesn't have this anticipated effect on me.

The violinist Enrico Gatti worked on this project 40 years long. Praeconium Solitudinis is a 2CD including works for Solo Violin following a philosophical and human path moving from the idea of the Solitude as a compulsory condition of the human being and of the artist. The 2CDs are included in a Media Book with texts (ITA/EN) by diverse writers and philosophers and the Photos by the renamed italian photographer Silvia Camporesi. The whole concept album is totally conceived by Enrico Gatti during his whole artistic life and now finally out! {Novantiqua Records}.

This conceptualization, along with the spatial qualities of the audio recording, draw your mind back a few centuries. Interspersed with nature sound "Promenades" as in Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (interludes to reflect on what you've seen or heard), the whole recording makes it feel like you, the listener, are wandering through time, eavesdropping on private composing sessions by each individual composer. What you're left with is a strong impression of the composer's intent, and not just simply the image of a person standing in front of microphones bowing on a violin. You can feel that violinist Enrico Gatti has totally immersed his art and life in the pursuit of an intimate understanding of baroque music for the solo violin.

Now if only all recording projects were undertaken with this much care and commitment, it would set a new paradigm of musical utopia.