The title The Trials of Tenducci here refers to a castrato, Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci, who spent much of his career in the British Isles, and part of that in Dublin. Like some of the other castrati, Tenducci exerted a strong attraction over aristocratic women, one of them in Dublin. The details are in the booklet of this Linn release and may constitute one of the factors that have brought the album commercial success. Another is likely that the music here, except for the concluding Exsultate, jubilate, K. 165, of Mozart, ...
Read More
The title The Trials of Tenducci here refers to a castrato, Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci, who spent much of his career in the British Isles, and part of that in Dublin. Like some of the other castrati, Tenducci exerted a strong attraction over aristocratic women, one of them in Dublin. The details are in the booklet of this Linn release and may constitute one of the factors that have brought the album commercial success. Another is likely that the music here, except for the concluding Exsultate, jubilate, K. 165, of Mozart, which is included on the slenderest of pretexts, is quite rare and plenty interesting. Few, or possibly none, of the pieces were actually composed in Ireland, but they were connected to Tenducci or at least emerged from the same milieu, and for the average listener, they will fill in a lot of empty space in a picture of the London music scene of the era, even if not necessarily a picture of Dublin. There is a symphony by Pierre van Maldere that's a competent essay in the Italianate...
Read Less
