Telemann, G.P.: Concerto in D Major, Twv 53:D5 / Vivaldi, A.

A city built on an archipelago of 117 islets, Venice is remarkable in many ways. Unsullied by modern traffic, it's buildings retain much of their historic character and something of the magic of the place is reflected in this tour which visits a number of the principal sites and reflects the changing light, which casts a spell of it's own. Violinist, priest and most prolific composer, Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice in 1678 and spent most of his life there, associated for much of the time with the Ospedale della Pieta, a charitable institution for girls, with a strong musical tradition. The music for the tour is taken from his collection of twelve concertos, 'Il Cimento dell'Armonia e dell'Inventione' (The Contest of Harmony and Invention), published in Paris in 1725.

Here, offering a further six concertos, is the latest instalment in Naxos’s recording of Vivaldi’s 37 bassoon concertos; 39 if one counts two incomplete specimens. Those who have invested in earlier volumes in the series (see below), all recorded by the same forces, will know to expect the enjoyable, fluent performances that are to be heard here.

The Nicolaus Esterházy Sinfonia use modern instruments but, under the direction of Béla Drahos they play with a crisp articulation that is, for the most part, stylistically convincing. Benkócs is a very fine bassoonist indeed, both technically extremely accomplished and musically imaginative. The outer movements – all six are in three movements, fast-slow-fast – frequently call for considerable fleetness of finger and certainty of breath control and Benkócs is never found wanting. There is rapid-fire virtuosity when needed and many delightfully dancing passages. In the slow movements Benkócs plays with lyrical expressivity, elegantly poignant and reflective in music which, as so often in the slow movements of Vivaldi’s concertos has a distinctly operatic feel about it.

Every one of these concertos offers things of real interest – Vivaldi’s musical imagination seems unflagging. There’s the way, for example, in which the opening allegro of RV 477 contrasts the tenor and bass registers of the solo instrument; or the dotted rhythms of the bassoon in the largo of RV 499. Or, particularly pleasant, the final allegro of RV 494 which is full of ingenious twists and turns.

It is puzzling that Vivaldi should have written quite so many concertos for the bassoon – the bassoon wasn’t generally a fashionable solo instrument in this period. Perhaps he wrote them for a specific instrumentalist; if so the identity of that musician remains unknown; certainly Vivaldi demonstrates a thorough understanding of the instrument’s possibilities. Whatever the circumstances which prompted the composition of these concertos, they certainly constitute a rewarding body of music and one of the many demonstrations of Vivaldi’s remarkable ability to produce seemingly infinite variations (and there really is variety here) on a basically simple formula.

A graduate of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Tamás Benkócs is a member of the Budapest Festival Orchestra. I haven’t encountered any other recordings by him outside this Naxos series of the Vivaldi concertos. He is such a fine player that it is to be hoped that he will go onto record more of the bassoon repertoire.

The one reservation – though it is not one that spoils my pleasure in the CDs – that I about this series concerns the rather understated penny-plain continuo, where the concertos would certainly benefit from greater embellishment. Very decent as the contribution of the Nicolaus Esterházy Sinfonia and Béla Drahos is, I would love to hear Benkócs playing these works with one of the best specialist baroque ensembles.

On balance though, this is an eminently worthwhile and enjoyable series, and this latest volume continues the good work begun by its predecessors. The recorded sound is pleasingly clear and well balanced.

-- Glyn Pursglove, MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Volume 31 of the Delizie Musicale series presents a very nice collection of Vivaldi at a very nice price.

Vivaldi L'arte dell'Arco / Giovanni & Federico Gigliemo, violins; et al Six Concerti a Due for Violin

These girls are educated at the expense of the state to distinguish themselves in music. They sing like angels and play violin, flute, harpsichord, organ, oboe, cello and bassoon; in short, no instrument can deter them, however big it may be. That is what French humanist and historian Charles de Brosses wrote in1739 about the girls who received their schooling in the Venetian orphanages which he visited. In one of these institutions, the Ospedale della Piet�, Antonio Vivaldi worked as 'maestro di violino' and 'maestro di concerti'. One of his tasks was 'to provide concertos for our girls and compositions for all types of instrument'. This release features oboe concertos that Vivaldi wrote for these girls, performed by Joris Van den Hauwe who gained highest honors for his post graduate 'higher diploma' in oboe playing at the Royal Conservatoire of Music in Brussels. With this album he won the Choc de Classica.

The publication of Vivaldi's Opus 3, 'L'estro armonico' - 'the Harmonic Inspiration', was the international breakthrough of Vivaldi that spread the composer's name and reputation across Europe. Although one would be hard-pressed to claim that none of the essential features of this collection of 12 concertos was unfamiliar to professional musicians of the day, the fact of their appearance in print at that time took Vivaldi's name throughout the musical world of his contemporaries including, of course, to JS Bach. The concept of transcriptions and differing instrumental timbres a day-to-day occurrence across Europe in the early 18th-century, but also the application and revivification of the music itself by modern-day performing musicians constitute a demonstration of the continuing validity of the practice, a relevance today wider in scope than the efforts, admirable though they be, of the historically informed performance practice of today's ensembles. It follows, therefore, that Armoniosa are at one level merely continuing a practice known and encouraged by Vivaldi and his contemporaries, a practice which, in many ways, would seem to have died out in our society's wider attempts at historical recreations of how music must have first appeared to our predecessors. Music is not similar to an immobile object in a museum. It music remains, as it has always done, a living organism in time, and it is this living quality that Armoniosa seek to revive for modern ears, mindful and always respectful of the originals, which are heard almost daily throughout the world, but which demonstrate that these living organisms can also be reborn through 21st-century ears in a manner which concentrates upon the essential qualities of Vivaldi's great music, and which is not hidebound by the straightjackets of history.

Il Farnace is the most re-written and re-proposed of Vivaldi’s operas. Versions of Farnace, two in 1727 and one each in 1730, 1731 and 1732, were conceived and adapted to the different circumstances for Venice, Prague, Pavia and Mantua, always with a cast to Vivaldi’s satisfaction and with the composer in control of the production. The greatest appreciation of Vivaldi’s operatic music was expressed in a letter by a spectator of the 1727 Carnival season. The abbot Antonio Conti wrote that of all the operas of the Venice season he liked best Farnace because its music was varied, “between the sublime and the tender,” and because Vivaldi’s pupil worked wonders. In 1738, for the Ferrara Carnival season, Vivaldi wrote a new score of the opera. This is the last Farnace, in two acts, as the third was lost.

Our journey takes US principally to the city of Genoa, for centuries an independent republic, held by Austria, seized by Napoleon, and later joined to Piedmont. Violinist, priest and most prolific composer, Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice in 1678 and spent most of his life there, associated for much of the time with the Ospedale della Pieta, a charitable institution for girls, with a strong musical tradition. The music for the tour is taken from concertos for various instruments.

The Music � Violinist, priest and most prolific composer, Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice in 1678 and spent most of his life there, associated for much of the time with the Ospedale della Piet�, a charitable institution for girls, with a strong musical tradition. The music for the tour is taken from his concertos for flute.

“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.

VIVALDI Bassoon Concertos: in a, RV 497; in C, RV 473; in F, RV 491; in C, RV 466; in C, RV 469; in g, RV 496 • Tamás Benkócs (bn); Béla Drahos, cond; Nicolaus Esterházy Snf • NAXOS 8.570798 (65:04)


For anyone wishing recordings of all 37 completed bassoon concertos by the Red Priest, there is currently only one choice: Daniel Smith on five ASV CDs (552). While this is hardly a bad deal—Smith and his two conductors and orchestras present the works with great energy and dazzling virtuosity—there have always been nagging irritations. Smith is an amazing performer, but every concerto seems like an Olympic event; faster is better—faster and louder better still. If, in the process, he produced a hollow tone—made coarse when overblown, barking low notes here and there, occasional dicey intonation, intermittent fudged figurations where the tempo was set faster than the fingers could fly, it was all in the name of the race. He and the orchestra always got to the end, together, and by golly it was exciting. And yet—and yet—!As much as it seems like ungrateful nit-picking and as much as one is thrilled just to have all of these inventive works so well played, or played at all, in the end one feels that there should be something more than mere pyrotechnics, however breathtaking they might be.


Enter the extraordinary Hungarian bassoonist Tamás Benkócs, principal of the superb Budapest Festival Orchestra. Here at last is the poetry, not the race. Here is elegance and wit and wistfulness and moments of repose to go along with the amazing technical virtuosity. Benkócs doesn’t have us on the edge of our seats, wondering if he is going to make it through a passage; rather he tackles the sometimes-staggering technical challenges with deceptive ease. The tempos are generally a bit slower than are Smith’s, but with that slight relaxation one starts hearing the extraordinary music instead of just the amazing rush of notes. The middle slow movements benefit the most—Benkócs plays them as if he were singing an aria—but the variety that he finds in the fast movements, not to mention the warm solid tone, impeccable intonation, seamlessly blended tenor and bass registers, and precise articulation of even the most demanding passages, is well worth a little loss in raw excitement. I like his playing as well as that of Klaus Thunemann on Philips, and that is high praise indeed. Béla Drahos and his excellent modern-instrument band provide sympathetic accompaniment: buoyant, transparent, restrained in use of vibrato, harpsichord dominated, but with attractive depth. I would have liked them a bit farther forward on the sound stage, but that is a minor quibble. Collectors who have a wider interest in this repertoire will want to sample some of the colorful period-instrument performances on Naïve 30379 and 30409, but there is still a great deal of vitality in these traditional modern-instrument performances, as well.


With this volume, Mr. Benkócs has finished five CDs and 31 concertos. Assumedly, he will complete the series in one more volume. Two other Fanfare critics have weighed in on the series; David L. Kirk warmly welcomed Volume 2 (8.555938) in 28:6; but in 30:2, Laura Rónai found Volume 3 (8.557556) too polite by half, and non-descript to boot. I certainly side with Mr. Kirk, but obviously opinions vary. The nice thing about Naxos recordings is that one can experiment for a relatively small investment. That’s what I recommend. Then you can buy the other four, as I did.


FANFARE: Ronald E. Grames

Recorded at Teatro Comunale, Ferrara, January 2008

Motezuma is Vivaldi’s only opera set in the New World. The manuscripts for this rarely performed and rarely heard opera were only rediscovered in 2002 and currently only one CD version exists recorded by Alan Curtis and Il Complesso Barocco.

Of the CD recording, BBC Music Magazine wrote: “The instrumentalists of Il Complesso Barocco are on excellent form as indeed is Vivaldi himself in a rewarding score”.

Alan Curtis, one of the leading experts of Baroque music, returns again with the same orchestra, renowned Baroque specialist Vito Priante and another expert cast for the World Premiere Recording on DVD.

Region Code: 0 (All)
Sound format: 16:9
Picture format: LPCM 2.0
Running Time: 153 min. + extras
Booklet notes: Ita / Eng / Fre / Ger
Subtitles: Fre, Eng, Ger, Spa, Ita

VIVALDI Oboe Sonatas: in B?, RV 34; in g, RV 28; in c, RV 53. Trio Sonata for 2 Oboes in g, RV 81. 1 Sonata in C for Vn, Ob, Org, and Chalumeau, RV 779 • Burkhard Glaetzner (ob); Ingo Goritzki (ob); 1 Karl Suske (vn); Christine Schornsheim (org, hpd); Thomas Reinhardt (bn); Siegfried Pank (vdg); Achim Beyer (vne) • CAPRICCIO 5016 (52:59)


This recording was originally released in 1988 as the chamber component of Burkard Glaetzner’s four-disc survey of Vivaldi’s oboe music. Be advised that oboe sonatas were not high on Vivaldi’s priority list; two of these five sonatas, RV 34 and RV 28, were originally intended for the violin. Nevertheless, reissuing this disc was probably a sound decision. Vivaldi’s oboe concertos are well represented on CD, but the sonatas not so much. Glaetzner’s recording of the C-Major Sonata, RV 779, was a CD first. Incidentally, the optional chalumeau in RV 779 is identified as a “bassoon ad lib.” Glaetzner is in fine form here, and the assisting artists are uniformly excellent. If this lightly explored corner of Vivaldi’s output piques your curiosity, you will not be disappointed by this disc.


FANFARE: George Chien

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD
The cast is the best we could possible want for Vivaldi nowadays: Ottavio Dantone's skilfull conducting brings the best out of this orchestral enchantment. Sara Mingardo brings her classy voice and remarkable stage presence to the role of the naive Statira. Delphine Galou’s bright tone and excellent agility combine with perfect diction. Roberta Mameli's crystal clear notes make of the role of Alinda a masterpiece of expressivity. Recorded in high definition, this production offers subtitles in Italian, German, English, French, Japanese, and Korean. Octavio Dantone is an Italian conductor and harpsichordist who is particularly noted for his performances of Baroque music. He has served as the Music Director of the Accademia Bizantina in Ravenna since 1996.

Antonio Vivaldi gave descriptive titles to seven of op. 8’s twelve concerti in its 1725 Amsterdam publishing, including the four concerti representing the seasons: la primavera, estate, autumno, l’inverno. + For the four seasons, Vivaldi included four self-penned sonnets, each divided thrice, reflecting each concerto’s three movements. + The 1725 publication indicated which musical passages are representative of which sonnet verses. + Heard on this CD are these rarely recorded sonnets, in the original Italian. + Different soloists for each of the seasons join the youthful musicians of EUBO.

In the first half of the 1700s, the aria with concertante trumpet was one of the ingredients that the public of the numerous Venetian theatres appreciated the most. + This is the first recording that makes available virtually all these still rather little-known vocal and instrumental works with trumpet that encompass Antonio Vivaldi’s entire career, works not only very interesting works from a musical point of view but also brilliantly written. + The oldest ones date from his Mantua period (1718-1720), the most recent ones belonging to the last phase of his operatic career (1732-1737).

Classical Music

This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.

The flute is probably the most serene instrument of all, aside from the harp. Its sound alone has a miraculously calming effect, evoking a mood of tranquility. This is assuming, of course, that the music being played is of a high and beauteous quality, something of which Antonio Vivaldi was certainly a master. The first concerto, "La tempesta di mare" (Sea storm), will be instantly recognizable by anyone who has seen recent diamond or wine commercials on television. The main theme's rapid upward scale is an engaging device the composer will use a few times throughout this collection. The Concerto in G minor, "La notte" (Night), creates an eerie atmosphere with its somber tones and very pregnant pauses, followed by a raging allegro. The D major concerto, "Il gardellino" (The Goldfinch) borrows the "The Four Seasons" technique of suggesting bird-song with two solo violins. Béla Drahos's playing in these and the remaining concertos captures the smile that is ever-present in Vivaldi's music with unerring skill and purity of tone. The Nicolaus Esterházy Sinfonia partners him with pungent, animated accompaniments. Naxos' warm recording enhances the effect of these engaging performances, which are simply as fine as any available.--Victor Carr, ClassicsToday.com

VIVALDI: Flute Concertos, Vol. 1

Vivaldi: Cello Concerti, Vol. 3

Vivaldi: Cello Concerti, Vol. 2

“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.

“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.

– Gramophone

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' Griselda, one of more than twenty operas, is based on a story retold in Boccaccio' Il decamerone about the testing of Griselda' patience and virtue by her royal husband through a series of cruel trials.

Pastoral tableau and earthly delights are on display in this vibrant and varied selection of Vivaldi’s arias and concertos for mixed forces. Vivaldi in Arcadia, the follow-up recording to Adrian Chandler’s Avie debut, Per Monsieur Pisendel (AV 0018), features the expanded forces of his ensemble La Serenissima, with the stunning string soloists engaging in a contest of style and beauty. The sparkling soprano of Mhairi Lawson, a member of English National Opera, joins them for arias from Dorilla in Tempe.

Adrian Chandler’s passionate explorations of Vivaldi’s music have led to numerous critically acclaimed performances, including the UK premieres of several of the Red Priest’s stage works.

Classical Music