Maddalena Sirmen: Violin Concerto in B Flat Major, Shelby Yamin, classical violin, Voices of Music

The opening allegro of Sirmen's Violin Concerto in B Flat Major, Shelby Yamin, classical violin. Performed on original instruments by the award winning Early Music ensemble Voices of Music. This work presented here for the first time in 8K video.
Notes by Sophie Benn: Maddalena Lombardini Sirmen boasted a spotless pedigree for a budding soloist, despite the fact that she did not come from a musical family—by contrast, consider the relative advantages enjoyed by members of the dynastic Mozart and Bach families when securing a living as musicians. Employed since girlhood as a musician at the Ospedale dei Mendicanti in Venice, she studied with composer and violin demigod Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770), becoming his favorite pupil before marrying fellow violinist Lodovico Sirmen in 1767 and embarking on years of touring Europe as a husband-and-wife power couple. By the early 1770s, though, the picture had changed: her marriage had fizzled, Lodovico had moved back to Italy with their young daughter, and Maddalena Sirmen found herself alone in London, making a living as a freelance soloist. Sirmen’s three Opus 2 violin concerti were almost certainly written for her own performances in London, although they were also published and arranged for keyboard in the period. In the B flat Major concerto (Opus 2, No, 1, also Opus 3), the brisk first movement is in a sort of streamlined sonata form. The middle movement, an elegant andante, fills every moment of the expansive beat with trills and runs for the soloist and the finale, a rondo, boasts no shortage of virtuosic flourishes that show off what Sirmen was capable of. Sirmen’s concerti were respected across Europe: in 1778, Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus’s father, wrote to his son mentioning “a beautifully written concerto by Sirmen” that he heard at a concert in Salzburg.A postscript, for students of performance practice: Sirmen’s teenage studies with Tartini resulted in at least one important document. When she was forced to delay her departure to come study with him, Tartini wrote her a letter so she could begin intensive practice in his method. Ten years later, that same letter was published in Italy and also translated into English, French and German. It remains one of the best sources we have on Tartini’s pedagogical methods and technical priorities, providing a window into historical performance practices of the 1760s. In it, Tartini advocates that Lombardini become above all “perfect mistress in every situation and part of the bow,” and offers a series of exercises to cultivate that skill. Bow technique remains a central concern for violinists today, and as we can see from the technical demands of this concerto, Sirmen seems to have mastered it wonderfully.
Violinist Shelby Yamin brings signature vivacity to performances across the globe, from the historic state rooms of George Washington’s Mount Vernon to the storied chapel at Versailles. Shelby has appeared as a soloist with Philharmonia Baroque Chamber Players, Voices of Music, House of Time, New York Baroque Incorporated and The Oregon Bach Festival orchestra. Dedicated to diversifying the canon, Shelby regularly researches, performs, and records lesser known works, including 18th-century repertoire from the music library of Nelly Custis and, more recently, the violin duets of Maddalena Lombardini Sirmen (1745–1818). Shelby’s discography includes the first ever recording of Sirmen’s entire opus of violin duets on period instruments (Orpheus Classical Label, 2021). In addition to performing regularly with the Cleveland based ensemble Les Délices, Shelby is also the Associate Producer of their Early Music webseries, SalonEra.Shelby has earned degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and The Juilliard School, where she won the Historical Performance Concerto Competition. She currently resides in New York City.
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Boby Borisov, audio engineer and ambisonics design
Video: Lloyd Hryciw & David Tayler
8K technology: David Tayler
Produced by Hanneke van Proosdij & David Tayler
Post Production: David Tayler & Andrew Levy
Audio mastering, video cutting and final 8K color and render: David Tayler
All copyright 2023 Voices of Music