Of the six violin concertos by Tartini in the current Gramophone Classical Catalogue, only one (D96) is duplicated here; as he wrote about 135 of them this is hardly surprising. It leaves a lot of ground to be explored and, on the evidence of this recording, the effort is likely to be rewarding.
Tartini shared Vivaldi’s love of virtuosity though he was more concerned with expressivity. The Concerto in A is a piece that abounds in digital display, whereas the easygoing Concerto in A minor has none that shows above the horizon, particularly as I Solisti Veneti opt for a cautiously modest interpretation of Presto. Tartini’s quest for expressivity reaps rich rewards in the Largo andante of the Concerto in A (astonishingly, its fourth and final movement), “Flow bitter tears... until my bitter anguish is consumed”, the Larghetto of the B minor Concerto, “Let me say farewell”, and the soaring Andante cantabile of that in F, “Mystery my soul”, reaching emotional depths that Vivaldi rarely achieved in his instrumental music. The opening Allegro of the Concerto in F shows that a liberal dusting of trills, without which the music’s message would be diminished, can evoke lighter and happier feelings than those inspired by dreams of the devil.
Toso plays impeccably, tempering tone and vibrato in extracting every drop of the essential character of each movement, and the vastly experienced I Solisti Veneti patently enjoy their sharing of his feelings. Had the tercentenary of Tartini’s birth been more generously celebrated in 1992, more nuggets might have been dug from his extensive ground; enjoy those revealed in this superb recording and be grateful for them.'