Barbella (c. 1750): Concerto for mandolin, strings and continuo

[Martin Jonas]

Emanuele Barbella (1718-1777): Concerto in Re Maggiore per Mandolino, Archi e Basso Continuo

I. Allegro ma non presto - 0:00
II. Andantino - 3:34
III.Giga Allegro - 7:08

This is a late Baroque or early Classical mandolin concerto by one of the leading 18th century composers for the instrument, Emmanuele Barbella of Naples. I have previously recorded this piece in 2015 on a nylon-strung mandolin, but have decided to record another version as the old one was a bit pedestrian. On this new recording, I play the solo mandolin part on my Embergher bowlback at somewhat closer to concert tempo (except for the Giga, which should be a bit faster). The solo instrument has a stronger tone, and the performance a lot more energy.

This is one of the core pieces of the original mandolin repertoire -- there are a fair number of other recordings on Youtube, none sounding very much alike. This gives me plenty of license to play it how it feels right for me -- my version doesn't sound much like any of the others either.

All artwork by Gaspare Traversi (1722-1770), a Neapolitan genre painter and an almost exact contemporary of Barbella's -- given the prominence of music scenes in his paintings, I would think it likely they knew each other.

Solo mandolin: 1915 Luigi Embergher
Mandolins 1&2: Mid-Missouri M-0W
Mandola: Mid-Missouri M-111
Mandocello: Suzuki MC-815



Martin

[Dan Krhla]

This came out great!!!

[mandos&turtles]

Nice playing! Have you ever listened to the album of Barbella's mandolin duets by John Skehan and Todd Collins? I'm new to classical mandolin but it seems that Barbella composed lots of mandolin pieces compared to other composers, is that a fair assessment?