Dragoste Academy

This collection represents the full range of Vivaldi recordings Christopher made with the AAM, and includes L'Estro Armonico Op.3, La Stravaganza Op.4, and the violin concertos Opp. 6, 8, 9, 11, and 12; solo concertos for flute (op. 10), oboe, bassoon, and cello; and various concerti grossi. Also featured are the complete cello sonatas, along with the cantatas "Amor, hai vinto" and "Nulla in mundo pax sincera", and sacred vocal works Stabat Mater, Nisi Dominus and the enduringly popular Gloria.

Christopher Hogwood is an irreplaceable figure in a marvelous period that spans over thirty years, the time of the rebirth of the ancient and baroque repertoire: a time of so-called performances with original instruments, as they were hastily defined in an urge to simplify. A period in which, amid the initial skepticism of the critics and their subsequent appreciation, important artists and philologists restored to music lovers the joy of rediscovering masterpieces that had often been forgotten and performing practices that had long been abandoned, recreating enormous interest in a repertoire that is still continuing to reveal the existence of great forgotten musical treasures.

This was the set that really got the "authentic instrument" craze going. It was a big, ambitious project that promised a fresh look at familiar music, as well as lots of exciting new discoveries. Christopher Hogwood tailored his forces to match what we know of the actual size and constitution of the orchestras of the period, and since Mozart wrote symphonies in every country in Europe, including England, France, Italy, Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia, the result is practically a blueprint of 18th-century orchestral practice. Then everyone else got into the act, and these performances sort of fell off the musical map. Listening to them again, one finds they hold up rather well. There's still the sense of discovery, and of course the music itself is glorious.