 Si le nom de Bartolomeo Bernardi est quelque peu oublié aujourd’hui, Urania Records propose, en un coffret soigné de deux CDs riches d’inédits, de découvrir plusieurs aspects de l’œuvre de ce compositeur, né à Bologne et dont la carrière se prolongera jusqu’à Copenhague. Y sont rassemblées six sonates pour violon et continuo, trois cantates pour soprano ainsi que deux autres compositions instrumentales. Beaucoup de diversité, donc, dans ce programme, imaginé comme un jalon entre Corelli et Paganini, efficacement conçu par un ensemble rodé à cette musique, mais également diversité au sein des pièces elles-mêmes puisqu’elles font se succéder de graves atmosphères volontiers da chiesa, des mouvements rapides faisant appel à un jeu proprement virtuose, et des textes d’inspiration profane, amoureuse et tourmentée. Tant la voix de la soprano se prêtant avec souplesse à la restitution des cantates, que le jeu du violon solo, au style stretto sur d’expressives cordes de boyau, apportent à ces enregistrements énormément de fraicheur et d’authenticité. Pour notre plus grand plaisir, Bernardi et sa musique nous sont ainsi restitués avec beaucoup de présence et d’éloquence. (Alain Monnier) Some features of Bartolomeo Bernardi are shrouded in mistery, as his biographical notes are nowadays still poor. He was from Bologna and lived between the XVII and the XVIII century (he was born around 1660 and died in 1732): as violinist, Bernardi first worked in Bologna and Mantua and then moved to Copenhagen, where he first worked as “compositore e sonatore di violino” (“composer and violin player”) and later as Kappellmeister at the court of the King of Denmark and Norway. Bernardi’s compositional talent is witnessed not only through his peculiar writing of his violin Sonatas but also through his title as “Philharmonic Fellow”, namely member of the most important Italian Music Academy of his époque, as he reported in the frontispiece of many of his works, since the earlier Sonate da camera op. I dated 1692. On the current record market there are some recordings of the music by Bernardi written for various ensembles, yet they are not exhaustive of his complete works: furthermore, there is not much remained of his works, as a fi re occurred in 1745 ruined many works held in Copenhagen. This CD aims to provide the recording of the material which has been unreleased so far and which completes the corpus of the composer.
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