Sirmen: Tartini's Letter - Violin Duos, Op. 4

This recording presents an unedited early classical repertoire by the Venetian composer and violinist Maddalena Lombardini Sirmen (1745-1760). As an outstanding pupil at the Ospedale dei Mendicanti in Venice, she was allowed to study with Giuseppe Tartini in Padua, who wrote her a long letter in which he explained his methods of violin playing and practising. This letter was copied in Padua even before it was sent and printed in Italy around 1770, followed by translations into English, German and French. Lombardini Sirmen was an extraordinary artist of the Enlightenment who achieved great popularity through her European tours as a violinist and through her compositions. Her music was widely published and reprinted by various publishers in Paris, the Netherlands, Germany and London. Her duets for two violins Opus 5 (Paris 1773) are a perfect example of the virtuosity that combines delicate and extravagant chamber music sonorities of the classical period. The performers are violinists Zefira Valova and Iskrena Yordanova, concertmasters of the two leading European baroque orchestras Il Pomo d'Oro and Divino Sospiro.