In December 1740, a notice in the Mercure de France announced the imminent publication of six ‘Sonates Violoncello Solo col Basso’ by Antonio Vivaldi. He composed at least ten cello sonatas; one has vanished, but this extremely rare Paris print encompassed the greater, and much the best part of a corpus of work which might have been significantly larger than we now know.v These sonatas have been recorded fairly regularly; the catalogue features creditable versions from Pieter Wispelwey (Channel Classics) and David Watkin (Hyperion), both accomplished periodists offering much to enjoy and admire in their contrasting performances. If Wispelwey is the more mercurial, surprising and unconventional, then Watkin’s more scholarly approach tends sometimes toward drabness, regardless of its authority.

Veteran Dutch authenticist Anner Bylsma, however, plays with greater imagination and fervour than either. Questions of phrasing, articulation and ornamentation will always remain largely conjectural; Bylsma’s solutions are reassuringly plausible, but never pedantic in their application of received historical wisdom. Sony’s fine recording is richly detailed, whilst never over-resonant, and continuo playing is discreetly effective throughout. Highly recommended.
Performance: 5 (out of 5); Sound: 5 (out of 5)

-- Michael Jameson, BBC Music Magazine

Lamon's playing puts expressiveness before virtuosity, and she ornaments freely adding a refreshing touch of spontaneity. In a hugely overcrowded field, Tafelmusik has come up with a winner.

Recordings of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons tend to fall into one of two catagories. There are the star soloist versions, which spotlight the virtuosic, and highly marketable, talents of the big name violinists. And then there are the period instrument versions, in which greater emphasis is put on unusual textures and more authentic performance practice.

This new disc from the Canadian group Tafelmusik is an excellent example of the latter, and a distinctive feature of their recording is their adoption of a pitch roughly a semitone higher than usual with period groups in line with recent research into common practice in 18th-century Venice. They also make use of an archlute to add variety to the continuo, and the result is a bright, distinctive sound which brings freshness, clarity and variety of texture to the music.

The playing itself is incisive but free of the hard-driven tempi which sometimes mar authentic performances, and is imaginatively allied to the seasonal pictures painted in the sonnets on which the concertos are based (which are included in the CD booklet).

Lamon’s relatively small tone means that her instrument blends in with the ensemble rather than dominating it, highlighting the concerto grosso aspects of the works. Her playing puts expressiveness before virtuosity and is quite beautiful in the slow movements, which she ornaments freely adding a refreshing touch of spontaneity to music which is after all very familiar. In a hugely overcrowded field, Tafelmusik has come up with a winner in these highly satisfying and well-recorded performances, and the Sinfonia and Concerto for Four Violins are pleasing bonuses.

Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5)

-- David Michaels, BBC Music Magazine

VIVALDI, VILLA-LOBOS: GUITAR C

The performances of these beautifully crafted pieces are more appealing than any previous ones that I have heard.

At first glance, this looks like the concluding volume of a complete recording of Vivaldi’s Op. 1. But, as Michael Talbot points out in a characteristically interesting and informative note, the stronger works are concentrated within the second half of the set. Among them is the best known of the Trios from the collection, the 20 variations on the theme of Spanish origin, La follia.

Only recently I reported favourably on performances of Vivaldi and Tartini by the ensemble L’Arte dell’Arco (Dynamic, 10/97 and 11/97 respectively). The period-instrument group was founded in 1994 and has so far focused its attention on Venetian music, both familiar and less familiar. As I remarked in the previous reviews, the instruments are tuned fractionally higher than today’s concert pitch, rather than the lower A=415, around which most current period-instrument groups prefer to hover. Recent research points to a Venetian tradition of a higher, therefore brighter, pitch in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Another feature of the recording lies in the instruments themselves, which belong to the collection of the Ospedale della Pieta with which Vivaldi was associated, on and off, throughout his working life.

In almost every respect the performances are more appealing than any previous ones that I have heard. For one thing, far greater consideration is given to instrumental sonority and interplay, and for another, careful thought has gone into the punctuation and phrasing of the music. In this way the listener is at once engaged both in the gesture and oratory of these beautifully crafted pieces. Vivaldi’s layout of movements, in all but the last sonata of the set, loosely conforms with that of a typical sonata da camera and, within his chosen schemes, he injects all the expressive contrasts and rhythmic vitality which characterize his concertos. L’Arte dell’Arco sensibly, and to some effect, ring the changes of colour and texture in the basso continuo; cello, theorbo, harpsichord and chamber organ are all called upon but, in one of the sonatas, the two violins are supported by cello, without either keyboard or plucked string. Such a practice may well have been more widespread in Italy than was once supposed and is later borne out in the majority of Tartini’s violin sonatas which were published without figured bass and in some cases with a bass part that was added as an afterthought.

In summary, this is a stimulating release by an ensemble from whom I look forward to hearing more. With Christopher Hogwood’s exemplary keyboard continuo realizations and tasteful judgement the future augurs well. Recommended.

-- Nicholas Anderson, Gramophone [5/1998]

Antonio Vivaldi's musical production for bassoon comprises no less than thirty-nine solo concertos. Within the musical landscape of it's time, this impressive musical legacy stands out like the silhouette of a mountain shrouded in mystery. If we consider that in Italy there is almost no evidence of the bassoon being used in the solo form after the 1680s, Vivaldi's contribution acquires a significance that is both extraordinary and enigmatic. When and for which events were his concertos composed and performed? And also, for which performers was such a vast, original and technically demanding production intended? It is not easy to find an answer to such questions. The composer's renewed interest in this instrument must have then derived from an encounter with a first-rate virtuoso, someone whose talent helped to stimulate the creation of an original repertoire, characterised by an extremely high technical and qualitative standard. These were definitely performers who were able to work in close contact with the composer over a sufficiently long period of time. Indeed, Vivaldi's writing was influenced and modelled on their technical skills, as testified by the eight concertos included in this recording.

The group of concertos for bassoon by Antonio Vivaldi (Venice, 4 March 1678 - Vienna, 28 July 1741) is the largest such collection in terms of quantity after those for violin: no less than thirty-nine are in fact extant, and only two are incomplete. But beyond these details, "what is remarkable", as Cesare Fertonani recently wrote, "is Vivaldi's extraordinary understanding of the technical possibilities of the bassoon, reflected in his avant- garde treatment of the instrument which attains the complete and sumptuous dignity of a soloist, and his intuition probably unprecedented in the history of music of it's expressive potential." Paolo Carlini is the soloist of this selection of the most important concerts dedicated to the instrument by Vivaldi, flanked by the famous "Virtuosi Italiani" orchestra, directed by Alberto Martini as a violin concert maestro.

Though regulated by no Grand Plan, the recording of Vivaldi's with-wind chamber works on Compact Disc progresses apace so let us take stock. Twenty-two works (RV87–108) are listed by Ryom as ''concertos for several different instruments with basso continuo'', one (RV93), with no wind instrument, is unsuited to the above ensembles. Seventeen of the remaining 21 are contained within the recordings by Petri/Holliger et al (PH) on Philips, and the London Harpsichord Ensemble (LHE) on Unicorn-Kanchana, with a few overlaps easily identified by consulting the earlier reviews. Ryom also lists five ''sonatas for two different instruments'' (RV82–86), two of which (RV84 and 86) are apt to all three groups and PH include the latter in their two-disc set.

Every item in the programme of Cologne Camerata (CC) is covered by the other recordings, both of high quality, but it is not simply a matter of 'counting noses'; PH and the LHE use modern instruments but CC use period ones, sounding about one semitone lower and giving a softer sound, emphasized by the more backward placing of the harpsichord and its replacement by a chamber organ (which the others do not use) in RV87. The three groups resolve the recurring question as to what flauto means (traverse flute or recorder?) in different ways; PH use only the latter (Michala Petri), the LHE only the former (Graham Mayger), and CC alternate the two for variety (Karl Kaiser and Michael Schneider respectively).

This is wholly friendly music, laced with occasional humour and for the most part constructed from the simplest of materials, leaving the door open to a little enhancement; the invitation is accepted by players in all three bands perhaps most frequently and effectively by those of CC—all these trimmings are probably prepared in advance, but Michala Petri's sound the most rehearsed and least 'spontaneous'. Cologne Camerata, playing with irrepressible spirit and laudable precision, have been excellently recorded in what is described as ''Vol. 1'', the booklet refers to ''Vol. 2'' whetting the appetite for further diverting deiights. Those who still baulk at the thought of 'authentic' performances will not be disappointed by the 'comparative' versions.

-- John Duarte, Gramophone [2/1990]

Antonio Vivaldi, musical avant-gardist, extravagant violin virtuoso and ingenious composer, was in great demand all over Europe. He travelled to cities including Rome, Prague, Vienna and Amsterdam - but the "red-haired priest" never saw Dresden. Despite this, his music was very much present at the Dresden court: the Saxon royal seat was considered the centre of the German cultivation of Vivaldi. Heinrich E. Grimm has transcribed Vivaldi's most famous programmatic cycle, The Four Seasons, for the organ completely in the spirit of Bach. When recorded on an original instrument, the result is a refreshingly rustic-baroque sound.

VIVALDI: CHAMBER MUSIC WITH WI

Vivaldi: Orlando furioso Original recording reissued Antonio Vivaldi (Composer), Claudio Scimone (Conductor), I Solisti Veneti (Orchestra), Marilyn Horne (Performer Orlando), Victoria de los Angeles (Performer Angelica ), Lucia Valentini Terrani (Performer Alcina), Carmen Gonzales (Performer Bradamante ), Lajos Kozma (Performer Medoro), Sesto Bruscantini (Performer Ruggiero ), Nicola Zaccaria (Performer Astolfo) Lucia Valentini-Terrani, of course, is often considered a bridge performer between the old days and the new, and her performance here, though containing some touches now considered quaint, is close enough to the modern style to pass muster. As for Bruscantini, he was a famous buffo baritone known for rapid patter but not for Baroque music. He copes surprisingly well, not as scrupulous as the distaff side of the cast but still ably working his way through difficult runs and, yes, even a trill here and there. Horne sings through the first act with her usual flawless technique and impassioned, all-purpose energy, but toward the end of act II she suddenly erupts in dramatic outbursts. Where did that come from? And she continues to surprise with more dramatic outbursts in act III. Granted, she's not Janet Baker, but it's still better than average Horne.

The internationally successful harp virtuoso plays well-known concertos by the Venetian composers Vivaldi, Marcello and Albinoni in new arrangements, combining them with original compositions for solo harp such as the sonata by Giovanni Pescetti, Godefroid's stunning set of variations on the popular tune "Carnaval de Venise", and "La Mandoline" by 19th-century composer Elias Parish Alvars.

Xavier de Maistre's aim is to make the listener forget completely that most of the Baroque concertos heard here were not originally written for the harp, but for different melody instruments. He finds it fascinating to bring out new timbres in the arrangements, some of which he pens himself. Vivaldi's famous concerto "Winter", in particular, seems to him to be predestined for playing on the harp, and his interpretation does indeed present this often-heard work in a totally new guise.

“Xavier de Maistre is a virtuoso of the highest order, profoundly musical and capable of realizing a remarkable range of nuance.” – Gramophone

Founded in 2000, L’Archicembalo is a period ensemble of top-notch Italian musicians who have played with all the major native exponents of Baroque music such as Giovanni Antonini and Giuliano Carmignola.

According to La Stampa, the ensemble ranks among the most inspiring and authoritative Vivaldi interpreters of our time. Part of this collection was released separately in 2015, and attracted glowing reviews: ‘The tempi are well chosen, without exaggerations, but also without being too slow… Italian ensembles have shown that [these Sinfonias] are more than nice fillers in a programme of solo concertos. In this recording the polyphonic, theatrical and expressive qualities of these pieces are brought to light.

What sets apart these concertos and sinfonias from the multitude of other such works composed by Vivaldi is the lack of a solo instrument. Yet with his usual, inexhaustible fertility of invention, Vivaldi turned this apparent lack into an opportunity to explore the possibilities of development and counterpoint more extensively than was possible in the oppositional and accompanimental language of the solo concertos. After a dashing opening movement there is generally a central Adagio, in the form of a tripartite song or a simple sequence of chords. This is followed by a lively, dance-like movement in two parts with two refrains. On occasion this finale is replaced by a technically superlative Fugue that displays Vivaldi’s mastery of counterpoint. Sometimes the Fugue is placed at the beginning of the Concerto, perhaps implying the original context of the work as the instrumental introduction to a solemn Mass. In complement to the concertos, the Sinfonias generally feature bolder and more brilliant string writing, evidently for use as the curtain-raiser to a theatrical event, though they now stand perfectly well on their own.

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REVIEWS:

This is surely an indispensable set for Vivaldians in that it brings together the fullest compilation yet of these works. For others who are unfamiliar with this repertoire, it is a treasure trove of irresistible, life-enhancing music, as good and convenient a place as any to discover these underrated compositions.

– MusicWeb International

L’Archicembalo know how to phrase the various sequences, and there is a nice rawness about the unisons as well as a lush texture when needed. In short, these four discs are not just an archival presentation of the complete string concertos and sinfonias; they are a good solid four hours plus of listening that will take one away to 18th-century Venice and beyond.

– Fanfare

Classical Music

Gloria

VIVALDI GREAT HITS