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Locatelli is traditionally thought of as 'the Paganini of the eighteenth century', largely because L'arte del violino contains twenty-four virtuoso unaccompanied caprices (ostensibly serving as cadenzas to the concertos) that have a superficial resemblance to Paganini's unaccompanied caprices. L'arte del violino undoubtedly contains some of the most difficult violin music written in the eighteenth century, and listeners who have been attracted to Locatelli by its pyrotechnies will be surprised and perhaps initially disappointed by Op 1. There are some virtuoso passages for the first violin in the set but it is a collection of concerti grossi, not solo concertos, and by and large Locatelli conforms to the styles and forms of the genre established by Corelli and other Roman composers such as Mossi and his teacher Valentini. He certainly followed Roman practice by printing the concertos with four violin and two bass part-books, allowing for the traditional division between a concertino of two violins and cello and the ripieno or concerto grosso of four-part orchestral strings, though he also provided two viola part-books, allowing the concertino to become a quartet on occasion, as in Geminiani's concertos. Locatelli also followed Corelli in dividing the set into eight da chiesa and four da camera concertos, and in making No 8 a Christmas concerto, full of echoes of Corelli's famous work, even down to the concluding pastorale, ending with two quiet, detached chords.

Furthermore, Locatelli still largely retains the archaic structure of seventeenth-century instrumental music. All the concertos but one are in a minimum of four movements, and several of them use Corelli's multi-sectional design with short contrasted passages sewn together like a patchwork quilt. It is no accident that the exception, No 7 in F, is the only one in the three-movement pattern long established by Venetian composers, for it is also by far the most modern in style, with a fiery opening Allegro for solo violin and strings. On the other hand, Locatelli's Op 1 is far from being a slavish imitation of Corelli's Op 6. In many respects it resembles the sets of concertos that Geminiani was to publish in London in the early 1730s. Locatelli shares with Geminiani (another Italian violinist who studied in Rome and settled in northern Europe) a fondness for combining conservative structures with an up-to-date musical language, and it is no surprise that he continued the concerto grosso format in all his later sets of concertos except for L'arte del violino.

This compromise between ancient and modern, Corelli and Vivaldi, Rome and Venice, appealed greatly to English audiences, as it must have done in Holland. Locatelli's Op 1 seems to have been successful, for it was issued in a revised and corrected edition in 1729, and was republished by Walsh in London in 1736. Thus, it is surprising that the set made so little impact on eighteenth-century England. Charles Burney gave Locatelli very short shrift, merely observing of his music that it 'excites more surprise than pleasure', while Charles Avison placed him among those progressive composers whose music was 'defective in various harmony and true invention'. Had they known his Op 1 they might have revised their opinion, for the collection, with its solid craftsmanship, imaginative textures and exciting virtuosity, deserves to be ranked among the best sets of concerti grossi.

from notes by Peter Holman © 1995