Nozeman

The Strad Issue: March 2015
Description: Demonstrative and colourful approach to Nozeman’s second opus
Musicians: Antoinette Lohman (violin) Furor Musicus
Composer: Nozeman

These stylish accounts of the op.2 Sonatas by Jacobus Nozeman (1693–1745) use a rich diversity of continuo instruments to striking effect. Although the technical stakes are higher than in op.1, Antoinette Lohman takes a demonstrative performing approach, pointing up the bold originality of Nozeman’s music and conquering most of its difficulties with flair, artistry and near-perfect tonal security. Her violin resonates pleasingly in the stratospheric passages in, for example, the Vivace of no.2, and in the various double-stops, notably the 10ths of no.4’s Moderato, and she executes these works’ elaborate articulations and athletic passagework lightly and incisively, especially the slurred staccatos of the second movement of no.6 and the rustic finales of nos.1, 4 and 6. Nozeman’s written-out ornamentation is rendered with appropriate rhythmic flexibility and his variation movements in nos.3 and 6 are sharply characterised, along with Corrette’s short additional cadenza for no.6.

Lohman’s informative booklet notes unfortunately incorporate a catastrophic misprint, dating the chin rest’s invention almost a century too early, and the recording occasionally allows some of the continuo group, especially the bowed string bass instruments, to obtrude in the balance. Nevertheless, one cannot help but commend these performers’ individuality, vitality and commitment.

ROBIN STOWELL

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