Deutsche Geigenmusik

The early Italian sonatas by Fontana, Frescobaldi and others are performed so often that one might be forgiven for thinking that no other virtuoso music for the soprano and bass violins was written at the time. Nothing could be less true! All the works in the programme Deutsche Geigenmusik were written north of the Alps before 1660. They not only prove that a tradition of soprano and bass violin music existed that could stand its own against contemporary German organ music, but also that this music has the capacity, in the words of Thomas Mace, "to make a man's ears glow, and fill his brains full of frisks."

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