The German patrician von Uffenbach, during a visit to Venice for the carnival of 1715, at long last managed to meet with Vivaldi and order from him “10 concerti grossi”. Three days later, the composer reappeared with all of the requested music, assuring his patron that it had been expressly composed for him. Vivaldi was unquestionably a very quick composer, but he was also a barefaced and extremely capable promoter of his own talents. The collection of twelve concertos for strings, now preserved in Paris, also has all the earmarks of having been a rapidly and cleverly assembled series of previously composed works, with very little new music added. This same modus operandi would mark the genesis of op. 10 and many other collections by Vivaldi. But Vivaldi is an excellent composer, and like a great actor, he succeeds in taking on the appearance of a character by merely donning a hat or imitating a gesture. Thus he manages to outline with a few brushstrokes all of the force of a French entree in the opening of Concerto n. 5, or to fall suddenly into the most moving melancholy when his unusual Ciaccona modulates into the minor key. Even the last movement of Concerto n. 2, despite appearances, is a rare example of a menuet en rondeau camouflaged as an Italian allegro. The beginning of Concerto n. 1, although belonging to the older works, must have been chosen by Vivaldi to open the collection because it resembles a chaconne in binary meter. These, then, are the distinctive elements, obvious and yet quite effective, which render the idea of a well recognizable taste or style—the same style which informed the “Domine Fili” from the Gloria RV 589, the aria “Tornar voglio” from Arsilda, and the final chorus of Il Giustino. Federico Maria Sardelli conducts the famous baroque ensemble Modo Antiquo, in this amazing historical recording.

Classical Music

Baroque giants La Serenissima return with their new recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, among other concerti for ensemble by Antonio Vivaldi. Recognized for 'whipping up a storm with Vivaldi,' La Serenissima is 'one of Britain's best-loved chamber orchestras' (The Telegraph) known for championing a host of neglected Italian baroque composers and its outstanding performances. Uniquely, the group's entire repertoire is edited from source material by founder and violinist Adrian Chandler. Praise for Vivaldi recordings by La Serenissima on Signum Classics: "After being obsessed by the composer and his music world for more than 30 years, Chandler by now is Vivaldi incarnate" - The Times

"This well-balanced programme of Vivaldi concertos should have a wide appeal. . . . Nigel Woodhouse and Sue Mossop bring as much expression to the music as their instruments allow. . . . Smith plays a modern flute and possesses a pleasing warm, rounded tone. He gives a lyrical account of the lovely Siciliano of Il gardellino tastefully ornamenting the repeated halves of this binary movement. . . . The two violin concertos are drawn from Vivaldi's Op. 8, the set which contains the Four Seasons. . . . The soloist is Lyn Fletcher who brings detail and plenty of light and shade to Vivaldi's often virtuosic writing. . . . [A]n entertaining programme affectionately played and well constructed. Clear and effective recorded sound." -- Nicholas Anderson, Gramophone

Vivaldi: Argippo

You know how animal conservationists say that it's essential to cull the over-populated deer herds every so often so as to make life better and less competitive for the remaining animals? Well, this is similar to what I do every two or three years to my persistently-proliferating stock of Vivaldi Four Seasons recordings. The active catalog now lists more than 200 versions; about a dozen is the limit of both my shelf-space and sensibility. So this new one arrives and, well, it's Joshua Bell and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, so it's likely to be worth a listen, and perhaps a place on that already over-populated shelf.

Of course, Sony already has a perfectly wonderful period-instrument Four Seasons with Giuliano Carmignola, and then there's the very fine modern-instrument Anne-Sophie Mutter rendition on DG, with an identical coupling no less, which like this one weirdly neglects to mention the Tartini sonata on the disc front cover or spine(!)--and we've yet to touch on other respectable versions by Fabio Biondi (Virgin) or Gil Shaham (also DG)--and no doubt you've already got your own favorite(s).

Ultimately none of this matters. If you're a Joshua Bell and/or Vivaldi fan, or if you've just arrived on planet Earth and therefore haven't yet acquired your first Four Seasons recording, you only have to consider whether these performances are distinctive and authoritative and exciting enough to move them from the store shelves to yours. The answer is unequivocally "yes".

Bell is one of the more consistently tasteful, sensitive, anti-self-indulgent violin virtuosos on the scene today, and as such he delivers these inherently flashy concertos with a refreshingly straightforward approach that scorches and sizzles without ever falling prey to pyrotechnic vulgarity. Bell and his first-rate partners--bravo to harpsichordist John Constable!--just make beautiful music out of Vivaldi's conceptions, and their efforts are as gripping as we expect from musicians of this caliber. The final, hair-raising Allegro of "Spring"--brought to vivid, room-filling life by the superb engineering--is just one example. Aficionados of the Tartini sonata will be interested to hear Bell's own little cadenza along with his occasional personal ornamentations, which confirm this performance's distinctive character as well as Bell's technical and interpretive artistry.

This music is so familiar and its technical demands so mainstream these days that any of today's better-trained violinists could deliver a respectable rendition--of any Vivaldi concerto for that matter. But Bell's assured performances and exceptionally vibrant sonics move this recording into the top tier--and I'm already eying my shelf to see which current occupant will have to be sacrificed.

--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

Reviews of original LPs

This is an attractive performance of a work that remains astonishingly fresh and delightful. I don't suppose it will please the purists—some continuo bits filled in with strings, not enough harpsichord anyway, and no doubt somebody will complain about ornamentation—but at this price the record is obviously intended for a wide public and the important thing is that Brusilow and the Philadelphia strings present the music in a most engaging way.
Anshel Brusilow is a new name to me. He is a most accomplished player and, with Ormandy, gives a vivid and musical performance, very well recorded. The lively movements are robust, the slow ones are beautifully played.
In case any reader hasn't yet heard these extraordinarily delightful concertos and is the sort who isn't normally attracted by early eighteenth-century music anyway, I do urge him to risk so small a sum on a record of The Four Seasons.

-- F. T.H., Gramophone [7/1962]

"We are so accustomed nowadays to Vivaldi being played by specialist groups such as the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, the ECO, I Musici and others that we have almost forgotten how the music was played before the Vivaldi revival really gathered momentum. There is no lack of panache and virtuosity in these accounts recorded by Stern and Oistrakh whose playing roused Denis Stevens's enthusiasm on the disc's first appearance. "It really does make a difference when violinists of the calibre of Oistrakh and Stern combine to play a double concerto... The performances are so fluent and musical that one's attention is held from the first groove to the last". Indeed the violin playing as such will excite the admiration of all aficionados for there is superb brilliance in the outer movements and expressive playing in the inner movements."

-- R.L., Gramophone [10/1975]

Violinist Giuliano Carmignola and conductor Andrea Marcon have served up another reminder that Vivaldi, in the right hands, is so much more than sonic wallpaper. These late Vivaldi concertos, given their premiere recordings here, are, for sure, more of the same musical illustrations, birdsongs, and harmonic sequences; what stands out is the aural handling they are given by Carmignola and the Venice Baroque Orchestra under Marcon.

Much attention is given to Giuliano Carmignola's violinistic tone, and with good reason. The sound he elicits from his extant 18th Century violin is rich and meaty, dosed with a subtle romantic vibrato, but colored throughout with a wide-ranging command of tone. Carmignola's virtuosity is nothing to be sneezed at either: blazing velocity, eternal line, and immaculate articulation and tuning all glow through an oh-so-italian musical nonchalance. The capper, though, is the zaftig sound of the orchestra. The bowing is self-assured, the tone warm and rounded, lacquered with the slight reverberance of the recording hall. The addition of an archlute, theorbo, and baroque guitar to the continuo (the baroque equivalent of jazz's "rhythm section") give the entire album a tremendous swing. I bet Vivaldi, were he still around, would be clamoring for Carmignola et al. to record his 500 or so other concerti.


David Simmons, WQXR

Tracks:
1. ANTONIO VIVALDI - CONCERTO FOR TRANSVERSE FLUTE, 2 VIOLINS, BASSOON & B.C IN G MINOR, RV104
2. ALESSANDRO MARCELLO - CONCERTO FOR OBOE, 2 VIOLINS, VIOLA & CONTINUO IN D MINOR
3. JOHANN JOACHIM QUANTZ - TRIO FOR RECORDER, TRANSVERSE FLUTE & B.C. IN C MAJOR
4. JOHANN CHRISTIAN BACH - QUINTET FOR FORTEPIANO, FLUTE, OBOE, VIOLIN & VIOLONCELLO IN D MAJOR OP.22/1
5. JOHAN FRIEDRICH FASCH - QUARTET FOR 2 OBOES, BASSOON & CONTINUO IN D MINOR
6. ANTONIO VIVALDI - CONCERTO FOR SOPRANINO RECORDER, 2 VIOLINS, VIOLA & B.C. IN C MAJOR RV444

This new recording of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons was well received on the continent a short while back—no small achievement when competition and rival versions are so prolific... The present Four Seasons is recorded with a resonance which affords a clarity and a sonority from which old instruments much benefit. The soloist, Franzjosef Maier, is a fine violinist and, for the most part, does riot over-indulge his often pronounced predilection for romance. Occasionally, intonation and ensemble are scrappy, particularly, for example, in the finale of "Winter". The picturesque qualities in Vivaldi's score, often specific, are under- rather than over-done though the performances are not without excitement—the finale of "Summer" is very effective... I found it thoroughly musicianly and would place it in an elevated position in an alarmingly over-subscribed league-table.

-- Gramophone [10/1979]

VIVALDI: 6 DOUBLE CONCERTOS S

Includes work(s) for orchestra by various composers.

VERDI: QUATTRO PEZZI SACRI V

BACH: MAGNIFICAT VIVALDI: GL

VIVALDI: VIOLIN CONCERTOS OP 8