An Englishman Abroad

Late 17th-century power politics and religious division shaped the world of Nicola Matteis the Younger, the ‘Englishman abroad’ of La Serenissima’s album title. The London-born violinist and composer, son of an Italian musician who moved to England following the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, married into an English Catholic family with potentially dangerous connections to the exiled Jacobite court in France. Having made his mark as a performer in London, Matteis moved to Vienna in 1700 where he became principal violinist of the imperial Habsburg Hofkapelle and composer of ballets for court balls and operas. The best of Matteis the Younger’s compositions, as Adrian Chandler and his period-instrument band demonstrate, can hold its own with works by more familiar names. The British violinist first encountered his music in the early 2010s and was intrigued by its striking blend of national styles. “I was also captivated by his circle of talented colleagues, by the fact that he was a lone champion of the English style on the continent and also by his evident talent as a violinist,” he tells Apple Music Classical. As Chandler learned more about Matteis, he uncovered possible links to composers such as Telemann and Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello, an Italian violinist-composer employed by the Württemberg court at Stuttgart. “I’ve always championed the underdog,” he comments. “I find it rather sad that the music of many talented composers now lies abandoned, unplayed and unloved—just because it doesn’t say Handel or Bach at the top of the score doesn’t mean it’s not worth exploring!” While Vivaldi and related composers have occupied much of La Serenissima’s work to date, the opportunity to record Matteis opened the door to music by others within the Anglo-Italian’s Europewide circle. Chandler and his companions set the tone with a compelling performance of the Chacony by Henry Purcell, who influenced the young Matteis. The latter’s Concerto for Violin, Strings and Continuo, essentially a collection of short dance pieces, springs to life here to form an elegant preface to the music Matteis wrote for inclusion in Antonio Caldara’s opera La Verità nell’Inganno. La Serenissima highlights the full expressive force and stylistic variety of magnificent Overture-Suites by Telemann and Brescianello. There’s also a passionate reading of Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto Il Favorito, part of a manuscript collection presented by the composer to the music-loving Emperor Charles VI and almost certainly performed for him in Vienna by Matteis. “This project gave me the excuse to widen the net and bring together the music of other composers in whom I hold a great interest,” notes Chandler. “It provided me with a rare link between the likes of Vivaldi and Purcell and also allowed me to further indulge my fascination with the music of Brescianello, another great and underplayed composer, and Caldara, the highest-paid composer of his day.”