There is a lot of good chatting on our page about ‘Tartini’ initiatives. Today we need to talk for the first time about the most important and durable of such initiatives, that is, the Edizione nazionale delle opere di Giuseppe Tartini, patronized by the Italian Ministry of cultural resources (MIBAC) and under way at Padua University.

Why? Because the largest part of Tartini’s music is not available on the market and certainly not in reliable editions. We are thankful to those who published Tartini in the past, yet only one edition may be considered entirely reliable and that is the sonata Brainard g5 “Trillo del diavolo” edited by Agnese Pavanello for Bärenreiter years ago. Also commendable are the “Carish” editions edited by E. Farina and C. Scimone. If we did not have these editions, very little would be available to musicians. However, the Farina/Scimone editions cannot really be considered ‘critical’ according to current standards. Musicians may of course use photographic reproductions of the sources, a practice coated with an appearance of authenticity but in reality equally ‘un-critical’. Even considering whatever is available on the market, the whole accounts only for 39 % of the whole Tartini output.

– What about the rest?
– Frankly – my imaginary friend might say – do we really need all that music? do we need all those 150 concertos and 150-odd sonatas? Isn’t it more than we actually need?

We do not think so: all of Tartini’s output is worth considering and playing as an important page in the history of Western music and of the Enlightenment period in particular. And the more we know, the more will it be possible to appreciate the details, differences and stylistic progress.

One example that we will address next is Arte dell’arco, the reknown (and yet unknown) collection of variations ona a theme by Corelli that, according to world-known violinist Federico Guglielmo, is to the violin what Bach’s Goldberg variations are for the keyboard. Then, wishing you a pleasant August, I look forward to examining this fascinating and puzzling case of music transmission, certainly interesting for all violinists and music lovers.

S.D.