“Something new every moment.” If we are to believe Shunske Sato, leader of Concerto Koln and soloist on this sparkling new release of Antonio Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” what is at the heart of this recording is the idea of freedom. Freedom, too, in more ways than one. True to the principles of historical performance practice, the ensemble delivers the vitality of spontaneous playing in Vivaldi’s music. Founded in Cologne in 1985 and at home on the great international concert platforms of the world ever since, Concerto Koln has developed a quite unique sound of its own, which is known and admired around the world. A major music magazine once wrote that the ensemble played antique rock and roll- “rousing, raw, and jovial.” The “Four Seasons,” are joined here by two other Vivaldi works, showing other aspects of the composer and rounding out our picture of him: the sad and sorrowful Good Friday music “Al Santo sepolcro” and the Concerto RV 156, which may be the most beautiful concerto Vivaldi ever wrote. This audiophile recording was made in the Paterskirche in Kempen, celebrated for its acoustics. There were no cuts, no stopping and starting, just one take, no compressors or artificial resonance. This recording simply documents an end-to-end performance by musicians at the highest level of concentration. This music sounds so natural and immediate, it’s as if one were hearing it live at a concert.
Kraus: Amphitryon; Cantatas; Symphonies; Chamber Music
Capriccio
CD
$33.99May 17, 2019
Joseph Martin Kraus, also named as the "Swedish Mozart", has been many years a shadowy existence in music history. Gluck and even Joseph Haydn saw "a real genius" in his virtuosic and nearly early-romantic works. His position as composer at the Swedish court under Gustav III made it possible to have a fixed income and a blithe creativity. This new release gives us an overall musical impression of his compositions in all genres: Beginning with the incidental music to Amphitryon, the high virtuosic Italian Cantatas, his Symphonies from different life periods, till the early String Quartets- it is clear that Gluck and Haydn were not mistaken in their assessment of his skill and prowess.
“My heart skipped a beat when [The Italian Job] from La Serenissima and Adrian Chandler landed on my desk, such was my enjoyment of their Gramophone Awards-shortlisted Vivaldi Four Seasons recording. So to discover that with this all-Italian assortment of sinfonias and concertos they’ve actually topped their 2016 triumph- and apparently effortlessly- gives me no small amount of pleasure.” So said the reviewer of the Gramophone Award-winning release, and the Vivaldi specialists are set to triumph once again with Vivaldi x2, an astonishing medley of double concertos for hunting horns, oboes, bassoon, violin and cello. Emanating from Vivaldi’s pen the double concerto- a genre of which he all but cornered the market- resulted in some of the composer’s most colorful and exuberant works. In the hands of two-time Gramophone Award-winning La Serenissima, these concertos come to virtuosic and effervescent life. “Were I asked to condense this review down to two simple words, they would be: buy it.” (Gramophone) “the freshness incinerates the cobwebs of familiarity in the heat of La Serenissima’s proselytizing zeal.” (BBC Music Magazine Concerto Choice)
REVIEWS:
The Vivaldi recordings by Adrian Chandler and his British period instrument ensemble La Serenissima, named after the nickname of the Venetian Republic and specializing in its music, are breaking new ground. Give this one a try if you haven’t heard the group before: it’s wonderful.
– All Music Guide (James Manheim)
These musicians represent one heck of a crack team when it comes to the music of Vivaldi. Bravissima, La Serenissima.
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons & Other Concerti / Whelan, Chandler, La Serenissima
Avie Records
CD
$19.99Sep 01, 2015
Adrian Chandler, who founded the period-instrument ensemble La Serenissima 21 years ago, has produced a dozen enlightening, acclaimed, and award-winning albums for AVIE. After many years of anticipation, Ade turns his attention to the touchstone of Vivaldi’s concerto output, The Four Seasons. As one has come to expect, he brings something unique to an interpretation brimming with vitality and originality. Putting this most popular of classical works into context, Ade rounds out the recording with Vivaldi concertos for bassoon, including the famous La Notte, and world premiere recordings of two concertos for the violin in tromba marina, a hitherto obsolete instrument that was used during Vivaldi’s lifetime.
Vivaldi - Music For The Chapel Of The Pietá /Chandler, La Serenissima
Avie Records
CD
$19.99Feb 01, 2005
R E V I E W S:
"This follow-up to La Serenissima’s anthology ‘Vivaldi in Arcadia’, is particularly interesting for the Concertos RV212 and RV554a, which have been reconstructed by Adrian Chandler. The former is a violin concerto, composed in 1712 for a festival in Padua and played by Vivaldi himself. A set of parts surviving in Dresden was damaged; the booklet note remarks, seemingly without irony, that this was ‘whilst in safe-keeping’ during the Second World War. Chandler has added the harmony here and there, and selected one of the three slow movements and two cadenzas. The result is a delight... In Laudate pueri Dominum, Mhairi Lawson sings with great passion, wonderfully responsive to the meaning of the words. In the surprisingly meditative Gloria, her vibrant soprano and Chandler’s violin sigh like lovers.The Salve regina is just as good... Chandler’s direction is as gripping as his playing. As ever, one is lost in admiration at the skills of the girls who sang and played at the Ospedale della Pietà, to whom this is a noble tribute." - Richard Lawrence, GRAMOPHONE
"The mastermind behind this terrific CD, Adrian Chandler, is not only Director of La Serenissima and a violinist of flair and distinction; he is also a meticulous scholar, as his excellent booklet notes reveal. He has clearly engaged in much fruitful research in preparing for this recording, even carrying out imaginative reconstruction where necessary. The result is a rich musical treat. All of this music was written by the ‘Red Priest’ for use in the Chapel of the Pietá, the Convent School for orphans (or ‘foundlings’) in Venice. The music on the generously filled disc consists of three instrumental concerti and two solo vocal cantatas, Laudate Pueri and Salve Regina. These are sung by the Scottish soprano Mhairi Lawson, who turns in thoroughly delightful performances... This, and all the other instrumental music, is realised superbly by the players of La Serenissima, the enlarged chamber ensemble named after the city of its inspiration; the name being, of course, a poetic soubriquet for Venice itself. The string sound is pure and bold, yet capable of great subtlety when required. They are underpinned by a continuo section of great richness: the harpsichord of Joseph McHardy, the theorbo (bass lute) of Richard Sweeney, and the organ playing of Robert Howarth. Despite the scholarship, there is nothing ‘academic’ about the performance of this music. Indeed, it is exuberant and often full of élan and humour." - Gwyn Parry-Jones, MusicWeb International
This CD has been given the title “The French Connection,” but it has nothing to do with the 1971 film in which Gene Hackman plays a New York City police detective trying to figure out where all the heroin is coming from. Instead, the title is an allusion to the increasing interest that French and Italian composers (and music lovers in general) had in each other’s music during the 1720s and 1730s. Vivaldi was an important player in this virtual exchange program, and supplied music—either new or recycled—for French patrons and printers. Even music intended for domestic use sometimes spoke with a French accent, as it were, during this period. Try the opening of RV 211 (probably composed as an operatic entr’acte) and you’ll immediately hear, in the dotted rhythms and swooping flourishes, an example of Vivaldi “speaking French.” This CD, then, is a varied compilation of works that fit into one of the above categories. As usual, one is impressed with Vivaldi’s fecundity and flexibility.
Adrian Chandler’s booklet notes are in two parts. The first is a discussion of Vivaldi’s impact on French music, and vice-versa. The second is “A note on the performance—a musician’s perspective.” This is a really terrific bit of musicology that even a layman should be able to get into. For example, in two of the so-called “Paris” concertos, a theorbo is used in the continuo, but in the fifth concerto, it is replaced with a guitar. Why, you might ask? Chandler argues that this concerto appears to have been specifically composed for a French audience and is the most typically French in style; therefore, it makes sense to use a guitar, which apparently was uncommon in Italian orchestral music at that time. Chandler also explains the two fragments included on this CD—concertos lacking one or more movements. Schubert’s “Unfinished” is, after all, a fragment, too, argues Chandler. I don’t think either of these fragments rises to Schubert’s level (or Bruckner’s Ninth!), but I agree with Chandler that works shouldn’t be ignored just because they are incomplete.
At first I thought that these performances were going to be too aggressive, but fortunately that is not the case, at least for the most part. The playing is lively (but not rushed) and very well articulated, and the fast movements have an appealing bounce. The musicians seem to be having fun. The slow movements sing nicely, without too much sweetness. La Serenissima was founded in 1994 and has recorded several discs for Avie. I am sorry to have missed them until now, but I hope to make up for that. Flutist Bircher and bassoonist Whelan are members of the ensemble. Whelan is particularly delightful to hear as he burbles through Vivaldi’s busier passages. His bassoon, a modern copy of an old Venetian instrument, even sounds a little like a saxophone at times, and to my ears, that only adds to the fun.
The recording is rich and brilliant, but not everyone will like how it brings the soloists so well into the foreground.
For her new recording, entitled Or (light), cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton has devised a two-part narrative, "like freeze frames, like incursions into time": first, Couperin's Les leçons de ténèbres or the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah. Prophecies are the time before. Before destruction and tears: "We hear the song of the prophet lamenting, but the possibility that this will not happen still exists." Then comes "our time": "With his dramatic force, Vivaldi confronts us with our present. He says, 'This is now.'" Sonia has chosen several excerpts from operas as well as two violin concertos. She transcribed most of the pieces in this programme for solo cello or two cellos, two voices that she plays herself. She also imagined bridges to other lights, those of Mahut's percussion and Marius Atherton's electric guitar and MS20 synthesiser.
Vivaldi: Concertos for Flute, Violin, Bassoon & Orchestra
Brilliant Classics
CD
$12.99Apr 30, 2026
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) was an Italian Baroque composer, virtuoso violinist, and priest, best known for his dynamic instrumental concertos and innovative orchestral writing. Born in Venice, Vivaldi was trained in both music and theology, eventually becoming a violin teacher and composer at the Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage for girls with an exceptional music program. His tenure there produced many of his finest instrumental works and helped shape the distinctive Venetian Baroque style. Vivaldi's concertos revolutionized instrumental music by exploring the expressive and technical possibilities of each instrument. His violin concertos expanded the concerto form, using clear contrasts between soloist and orchestra and developing the ritornello structure that would influence composers such as J.S. Bach. His flute concertos, composed later in his career, demonstrate his sensitivity to the instrument's lyrical qualities and agility. These concertos were among the earliest significant contributions to the flute repertoire and reflect the growing popularity of the transverse flute in the early 18th century. Vivaldi also wrote around 40 bassoon concertos, an unprecedented number for the time. These works reveal his deep understanding of the instrument's expressive range, from playful and energetic to dark and solemn. They remain central to the bassoon's solo literature today. This new recording presents the first recording of concertos which missed certain movements, and which are completed by reconstructing from existing musical materials, by Alessandro Ciccolini, achieving cohesive and stylistically faithful reconstructions. Ciccolini has already works extensively reconstructing Vivaldi operas, for publication by Barenreiter and Boosey & Hawkes, and performed by Alan Curtis for DG. Played by Tommaso Rossi (flute solo), Alessandro Ciccolini (violin solo & conductor), Giovanni Battista Graziadio (bassoon solo) and the Compagnia de Violini.
The Ensemble Concerto Köln embark on a journey into the Baroque era and present Violin Concertos by Corelli, Somis, Valentini, Mascitti, and Vivaldi. For the recording, they are accompanied by the excellent Russian violinist Evgeni Sviridov. Arcangelo Corelli, who lived and died in Rome, is considered a typical representative of classical Italian violin music and, as such, had a strong influence on all his younger contemporaries, whose works can be heard on this album.
Daniel Muller-Schott ranks among the most distinguished cellists of our era, captivating audiences on the world's leading concert stages. In this remarkable recording, Daniel Muller-Schott blends masterful cello artistry with a deeply personal musical journey. Together with Irina Zahharenkova and Anderson Fiorelli, he brings works by Bach, Vivaldi, Geminiani and Boccherini to life - performed on the very harpsichord his mother played, whose sound has accompanied him since childhood. The sonatas unfold with a captivating mix of Baroque elegance, emotional warmth and technical brilliance. Each interpretation reflects intimacy, nostalgia and the timeless power of music. An album that resonates: authentic, poetic, and radiant with Baroque expressiveness.
Ask 100 people and you'll know 100 things. Talking about numbers in Vivaldi's work is mind-boggling! 96 operas, dozens of cantatas and sacred pieces, over 600 instrumental pieces, including 230 violin concertos. One movement per day over a 40-year career... With this recording, Giuliano Carmignola reaches the milestone of 100 violin concertos for the first time in the history of recordings! 13 new compositions reveal the Treviso virtuoso's incomparable affinity with this repertoire of inexhaustible charm.
Il Bajazet was commissioned in 1735 to open Verona's carnival season. Vivaldi chose a libretto by Agostino Piovene drawn from the well-known story of the defeated Ottoman sultan, King Bajazet, captured by Tamerlane who duly falls in love with Bajazet's proud daughter, Asteria. Vivaldi was in his late maturity when he completed the opera, modifying his music to suit contemporary taste, and using the pasticcio form, incorporating some arias written by other, mostly Neapolitan, composers. Repurposing of this kind was wholly acceptable at the time and such works enjoyed great popularity. The conductor and Vivaldi specialist, Federico Maria Sardelli, has integrated lost arias, clarified the use of historically appropriate orchestration, and brought the opera to rich theatrical life.
