Gli Incogniti explores a musical enigma in Early Music Vancouver presentation, April 17

Amandine Beyer and her Baroque ensemble play compositions by an Italian violinist whose life and music are shrouded in mystery

By JOHn LUCAS

Gli Incogniti

Early Music Vancouver presents Amandine Beyer and Gli Incogniti at Christ Church Cathedral on April 17

UNLESS YOU HAVE made a serious study of Italian Baroque violinists, you might not be familiar with Nicola Matteis—but, for a brief, shining moment, he was the toast of London.

Born circa 1650, most likely in Naples, Matteis moved to England in the early 1670s and quickly became his era’s equivalent of a rock star. With his reputedly fluid playing and ravishing tone, Matteis almost single-handedly swayed public taste away from French-style violin-playing to a new Italian method.

He also published his own compositions, which were well-received and cemented his reputation as a musical force to be reckoned with.

In an upcoming Early Music Vancouver presentation titled False Consonances of Melancholy, French violinist Amandine Beyer and her Baroque ensemble, Gli Incogniti, will perform works by Matteis. These are set to include his Suite in A minor and Suite in G major, interpersed with works by Matteis’s English contemporary Henry Purcell.

Unlike Purcell, who was lavished with praise in his lifetime and remembered as one of the greatest composers his country ever produced, Matteis faded into obscurity after his initial taste of success. He died in poverty in 1713, his compositions largely forgotten until recent decades.

So, no, Matteis isn’t exactly a household name, but as Beyer eloquently writes in her program notes, “His music and his invention always oscillate between certainty and magic, the known and the impalpable.”

As for Beyer, she has become something of a classical-world rock star in her own right, with The Strad calling her “technically superb” and touting her “articulate lyricism”. In other words, this is one you shouldn’t miss—even if you have never heard of Nicola Matteis before.

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