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The Chronicle Review Corner

There are 44 tracks on here, the longest 3.49 (the last on the CD, total playing time 72 minutes), the shortest 50 and 51 seconds respectively. This is not going to be played by people who want meaty, long pieces, or even people who want to remember the names of the tracks they are hearing.

Instead this collection is for people wanting a mood or an atmosphere, and despite the title it lets us imagine we’re a Venetian noble enjoying canapes in a posh hall while a violinist plays, as much for the warm and even comforting sound as the actual music.

Still, you know you’re getting quality with Sheppard Skærved, recognised as a leading interpreter of music new and old, and regularly let loose on old and valuable violins — he is the only violinist to have performed on the personal violins of Viotti, Paganini, Joachim, Kreisler and Ole Bull.

The work he is playing here is from Preludes or Voluntarys, published by John Walsh in 1705. The edition included music from the leading lights of the age such as Purcell, Biber, Pepusch, Correlli and Torrelli, and some whose names are somewhat forgotten, such as Matteis, Bassani, Vitali and Thomas Baltzar, whose epic three-minute track closes the programme. Other composers include Mr Hills, Mr Smith and Mr Simons, assumed to be musicians of the royal court who had presented a work to Walsh for publication.

Sheppard Skærved gets to play these on a 1664 violin of unknown make which was an instrument of King Charles II’s court orchestra. You might like the album because of Sheppard Skærved’s virtuoso skills or because of an interest in historical violin but you can equally enjoy it for the warm, varied playing. A good festive album, too, because of the warm, fuzzy and happy mood it creates.