Haydn and Mozart still dominate the image of late eighteenth-century music. As a result, the many musicians and composers who worked alongside the great names easily fade into the background. Niccolò Mestrino (1748–1789) is a striking example. The Italian violinist worked from 1780 as concertmaster in Joseph Haydn's Esterházy chapel, later moved to Paris, where Giovanni Battista Viotti appointed him as orchestra leader. He died there in 1789, barely 41 years old. Relatively little is known about his life, and only a limited number of his works have survived.
This new Ramée release brings Mestrino out of that shadow. Plamena Nikitassova, as soloist and artistic director with Les Élémens, takes on two violin concertos and a sonata for violin and cello – music that has hardly been available until now and is recorded here on CD for the first time.
Without show
That Mestrino was first and foremost an exceptional violinist becomes immediately clear in the Violin Concerto No. 6 in E major. The solo part is demanding, with high registers, rapid passages, large leaps and double stops. Yet with Nikitassova it never sounds like a pile-up of technical obstacles. She plays lightly and supply: the virtuosity is constantly present, but never becomes an end in itself.
Her instrument plays a role here too. Nikitassova plays a violin by Nicolas Lupot from 1783, which in this recording sounds clear and slender, with sufficient core without becoming heavy. In the small ensemble of Les Élémens, the solo violin remains closely connected to the group. The accompaniment responds alertly to the impulses of the soloist. The atmospheric introduction, with dark strings, immediately sets a characterful tone; oboes and horns add colour without weighing down the sound picture.
The E major concerto also makes clear where Mestrino's limits as a composer lie. The first movement is formally in line with the classical developments of his time, but Mestrino seems less interested in developing a musical idea than in the possibilities he can offer the soloist. Themes are used more as a starting point for new virtuosic passages than developed further. As a result, the music flows smoothly and attractively, but compositionally it sometimes remains on the surface.
That is precisely why the Romance forms an interesting contrast. Here Mestrino does not need to constantly display his technical ingenuity, and the violin is given full room to sing. Nikitassova does so with a sense of expression and proportion. The following Rondo brings back the agility and virtuosic bravura, so that the three movements together give a clear picture of Mestrino's strengths and limitations.
Between salon and concert hall
The Sonata for violin and cello in D major broadens the picture and at the same time offers a different listening experience. Christophe Coin is a strong partner for Nikitassova. The two musicians treat their parts as equal voices and are perfectly attuned to each other, giving the sonata a distinctly chamber-music character. The music here has a direct charm that comes fully into its own in this performance. The Romance Andantino in particular convinces through its intimacy. Here it is less the virtuosic composer who comes forward than a musician with a sense of melody and of a simple, direct musical thought.
The Violin Concerto No. 9 in E-flat major connects more strongly with the virtuosic concerto practice that developed in France around Viotti. The solo violin is given more room to shine, but Nikitassova does not turn these moments into a demonstration. She keeps the music agile and elegant, even when the technical demands rise sharply, without losing the overall line.
The first movement, Maestoso, begins strikingly refined and light, less solemn than the indication might suggest. The violin is given all the space to sing, while the chamber ensemble surrounds it clearly and smoothly. A brief intermezzo from the continuo brings a different colour to the whole. Also remarkable is the Romance, in which portamento plays a striking role. The small slides give the violin part a warm, expressive suppleness that, to modern ears, quickly sounds more Romantic than it may have been intended in its historical context. Nikitassova integrates them so naturally that they never sound like an effect for its own sake.
Yet here, too, repetition begins to weigh. Mestrino has refined resources, but within this concerto he returns to them regularly. What initially works as a recognisable style gradually loses its surprise. The Rondo Allegro is also played with care and elegance, but hardly manages to steer the listening experience in a new direction. After the earlier movements, this finale therefore has something of more of the same.
The recording from the Martinskirche in Basel is clear and spacious. The solo violin stands clearly in front without the ensemble disappearing into the background. Especially in the slower movements this balance works well: the music gains room without losing its intimacy.
A musician from the shadows
As a composer, Mestrino is too uneven to be placed alongside Haydn or Mozart. His strength lies mainly in the combination of virtuosity, melodic charm and direct expression; when a musical idea needs to be sustained and developed over a longer span, his music sometimes loses tension. It is precisely this that makes clear where he belongs: at an interesting crossroads between the Italian violin tradition, the circle around Haydn, and the French concerto practice around Viotti.
This recording brings this musician out of the shadows. Nikitassova and Les Élémens play Mestrino with elegance and joy in playing, and make one curious about a composer who remained out of view for a long time. The result is not a forgotten masterpiece, but a convincing portrait of a violinist who found himself at the crossroads of two musical worlds.
