Sigurd Imsen: The virtuosic Scope of Action.
Research Fellow at Norwegian Academy of Music
Being a project of musical history, it emerges from the work on musical manuscripts and other written sources from the 17th and 18th centuries.
The case study deals with the production of the Paduan violinist Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770) and his highly personal and eccentric style of improvisation, which has been thoroughly documented through a substancial number of handwritten manuscripts, contemporary printed editions and Tartini’s own theoretical guidelines.
The goal is to identify the stylistic traits in the music of Tartini and his followers, and to re-implement these into related repertoire of the age, for example the earlier music of the first Viennese school.
One important part of the project is the work on four violin concertos by Tartini found in the libraries of the Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua, pieces that have neither been recorded nor published before, and most likely never been performed in modern times. The performance of these will be a main activity towards the end of the programme period.
The project is also affected by other central issues like improvisation in general, principles of authentisity in performance and contemporary interpretation. These are being displayed through a series of performances of Tartini’s music and similar repertoire for the violin.