Enrico Onofri　　vivaldi : Les Quatre Saisons

Quatre saisons, quatre poèmes, quatre concertos.

Vivaldi’s Concerti Ripieni are probably the most unusual works written by the Venetian composer.

Vivaldi’s Concerti ripieni are probably the most unusual works written by the Venetian composer. Some of these pieces, however, are particularly exceptional for various reasons, especially considering the artistic environment in early 18th century Venice. This recording presents Vivaldi’s most brilliant and at the same time bizarre works from this genre. These compositional experiments are sometimes quite extreme and far ahead of their time, such as the enigmatic Concerto conca, the solemn Sinfonia Al Santo Sepolcro, the avant-garde and at the same time archaic Concerto alla Rustica. This recording is the first collaboration of the Academia Montis Regalis with Enrico Onofri as principal conductor.

Although it is not known to which mysterious figures they were dedicated, Joseph de Boismortier’s cantatas Les Quatre Saisons, published in 1724, resonate with the splendour of court festivities and the eloquence of the salons de conversation. The libretto, written by an anonymous but undoubtedly romantic hand, unfolds its poetry through the seasons, and the composer seems to have enjoyed recreating all its subtleties in his music. For her first recording as conductor, Chloé de Guillebon surrounded herself with young talent, accompanied by the skilful musicians of the Orchestre de l'Opéra Royal de Versailles.

On his second solo album for Arcana after "L’ Ultimo romano", Simone Vallerotonda explores the metaphysical and sensual world of seventeenth-century French lute music. The result is "Méditation" : four suites in four different keys, each associated with a season and with one of the four ‘humours’ (melancholic/autumn, sanguine/spring, phlegmatic/winter, choleric/summer) that were said to characterise human beings in their temperament and physical traits.An anatomy of the human soul, passing from the rarefied and reflective atmosphere of Charles Mouton’s Prélude non mesuré through Jacques Gallot’s dizzying Rondeaux, Valentin Strobel’s skipping, exotic Canaries, the eulogies of Robert de Visée’s Tombeaux, where the notes resonate like prayers and tears for the deceased, to the bizarre, asymmetrical Courantes of Dubut le Père. A journey at the conclusion of which we find human beings described in their different and contrasting passions by means of music – music whose colours, though centuries old, portray them with extraordinary modernity.