Vivaldi Project

Extract from Review

Performing the Score is a worthy sequel to Knowing the Score, and it will certainly provide all viewers, whether in the "modern"  field or the early music field, with much-needed food for thought.

Field's presentacion starts from scratc so to speak and she presents very detailed examples and analyses of Baroque violin treatises and music. She also explains the shift from l8th-century violins and bows to the ones we know now, displaying her l703 Testori violin which is still in ''modem set-up,'' and her Baroque violin, which is a modem replica of an Amati built by Karl Dennis in 2007. When the age-old issue of vibrato arises, she points out that for the virtuoso violinist Francesco Geminiani (l687- l762), author of Art of Playing the Violin (l75 l) vibrato is but one item in a lengthy lis t of ''embellishments.'' However, she goes to great lengths to impress upon the viewer that it's not enough to simply play without vibraco if you wanc to underscand Baroque violin playing. ''One cannot play expressively through a process of subtraction.... This is whe the serious study and deep commitment come into play, for unless these new old  parameters are absorbed into the blood, as it were, to produce deeper insights, we will remain on the fringe at best." To this end she speaks at length about the importance of bowing, stating: "The 18th Century understood the bow to be the true source of the violin's voice."