John Addison: Six Sonatas: Violin Duett

In 1772 John Addison brought out in Edinburgh a volume containing six duets in the form of three- or four-movement sonatas for two unaccompanied violins, his only works to survive. Such duets were highly popular throughout the eighteenth century as music for domestic recreation and teaching purposes. Addison’s sonatas are varied and enterprising, including two fugal and two canonic movements but not neglecting a more lyrical vein. They are deliberately cosmopolitan in style, looking back to Corelli and Handel but also including features drawing on more recent Italian and French music. In technical respects they are only moderately difficult. Violinists will enjoy the constant interplay between the two instruments, which share the main material very equally. Reference works have hitherto largely ignored Addison, but he is a composer with something to say whose music deserves to be played and heard today.