Two newly identified violin sonatas

It is rare indeed for previously unknown instrumental works by Albinoni (1671–1751) to turn up, but recently Michael Talbot came across two violin sonatas — one from the start of the composer’s career and the other from the period of his maturity — among the anonymous manuscripts of the Este Collection in the Austrian National Library.

Both sonatas originate from the collection of Niccolò Sanguinazzo, an amateur musician resident in Padua, and one may have been written for the court of Mantua.

Drawing on his extensive knowledge of this highly individual composer, Talbot bases his attribution of the sonatas on contextual, structural and stylistic criteria. The probably earlier work, in G minor, is similar in character to a number of four-part balletti in the same collection and is particularly interesting for some cantata-like features in its opening movement.

The other sonata, in B flat major, resembles the works published in Albinoni’s Op. 6 (1712) and is noteworthy for the finely chiselled melodic lines of its slow movements and for sparkling passage-work in the quick ones. Both sonatas are attractive additions to the Albinonian canon.