For players beginning the viola d'amore, the 24 Preludes of Henri Casadesus may be a good place to start getting familiar with D major tuning and the 7 string territory. Positions are also indicated, but maybe not as consistently as fingerings. Overall, it is a very accurate score. I have made a list below, of places I think there may be errors in the edition.
Prelude 5, page 18, last bar of 2nd system from the bottom of the page: beat 1 might be like beat 1 of bar 4, or vice versa, and bar 2, beat three of the same system, that might be better as in bar 2.
Prelude 8 page 21, system 5. I find it easier slur by bars, as the slurs are in the accompaniment score. Prelude 12 bar 6, fingering should be parallel to 1st bar of 2nd system from the end. System 4, bar 1, and also in the parallel place in the 3rd last bar, natural signs are missing for the final 8th note double stop, I think. So a diamond head note on the middle line of the staff. Fifth system, final bar, tie is missing between 3rd and 4th notes? Prelude 14 bar 3, final note should have 2 for fingering.
Prelude 15 5th system, bar 3, I think the 5th note is an a with a 2nd finger. Prelude 18 3rd system from the end, bar 1, beat 3, I need a reminder fx myself. Prelude 21 system 2, bar 2, 2nd 16th of bar, both notes open. Prelude 22 System 2, bar 2 the lowest note is a d. System 5, the last fingering in the bar is easier as a 2, I think. In the meantime, here is a link to Casadesus playing playing his Plaisir d'amore, which I presume is the work he ascribed to Martini in his program of , see below.
Plaisir d'Amour, Casadesus rec. I have had the pleasure, as a member of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, of performing in a beautiful hall in Bilboa, in northern Spain. The hallways around the auditorium are filled with the publicity pictures, to a far greater degree than is usual, dating back to the inception of the series there, in My colleagues and I especially liked the one of Pablo Casals, as a member of a string quartet, back in , when he had hair.
