String Concertos

This is the third volume in Capriccio’s 18-disc Pancho Vladigerov Edition. After multi-disc sets that introduced his piano concertos and symphonies this one turns to his concertos for stringed instruments. These powerfully unreticent recordings were conducted by Alexander Vladigerov and by the composer (Bulgarian Dances) with the Bulgarian Chamber Orchestra and Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra. As with the previous two sets, the recordings were produced in the 1970s in Bulgaria. The violin soloists are Georgi Badev, Dina Schneidermann and Emil Karmilarov and two cello works are led by Ventseslav Nikolov.

The concertos by Vivaldi featured on this recording are all classifiable by genre as concerti a Quattro : that is, concertos for the standard string orchestra of the time but without the participation of a violin or other soloist. In fact, such concertos continued the tradition of the primitive concerto as conceived in northern Italy shortly before 1700 (see, for example, the concertos of Giuseppe Torelli’s Op. 5 [1692] and Op. 6 [1698]). Following the rise from c. 1710 of the solo concerto (for which Vivaldi was primarily responsible), concerti a Quattro became much less popular, especially since operatic overtures, which were normally scored for exactly the same forces, could be detached from their parent work and used as independent concert symphonies (sinfonie da camera ).

All praise to Hungaroton for their series of Pleyel string concertos. This first volume gives us the five extant cello concertos. A concerto in D (Ben 102) advertised by Breitkopf in 1782-4 is lost. A second volume with the violin concerto (both versions) is promised. Three works here are completely new. The other two have been recorded before: Ben 106 (1797) as a cello concerto or in Pleyel’s alternative versions for flute or clarinet; Ben 104 (c1788) as a clarinet concerto—possibly Gebauer’s adaptation. Ben 105 (1790) was also issued as a viola concerto.

This is a highly distinctive album in the mountain of Vivaldi CDs. The works come from a manuscript in the library of the Paris Conservatory that is thought to have been originally presented to a French nobleman. It is thought that only two of the concertos were new, while the other 10 were chosen from those Vivaldi had on hand. Whatever the truth of this, this set of concertos represents a highly winning, perhaps more subtle aspect of Vivaldi's style than one usually comes in contact with.

If you're one of those who feel Telemann has gotten a bad rap, your day has come. Here's a disc that will make even diehard skeptics take another listen to this Baroque master. Reinhard Goebel and the Musica Antiqua Köln perform a program of Telemann's chamber music for strings, including a pair of symphonies (which didn't mean nearly the same thing to Telemann as it did to Mozart or Beethoven), a suite, and a series of concertos (which also meant something else to him).

The release of this four-CD set of works for solo string instruments and orchestra pays tribute, as does the recently issued box-set of ‘British Piano Concertos’, to the imagination and vision of the late Richard Itter and his pioneering Lyrita label. For many, Lyrita was the British music label and was loyally supported by various ‘in house’ conductors, among them Adrian Boult, Nicholas Braithwaite, Norman Del Mar and Vernon Handley. Many of the recordings offered here are from the old Lyrita analogue and early digital catalogue but there are a few recordings made during the label’s short revival between 1993 and 1996 which were not issued until more than a decade after they were made. The set makes for fantastic value for money, each CD containing well over 70 minutes of music, and the performances are generally of tremendous vibrancy and quality.

Georg Philipp Telemann's string concertos position themselves somewhere between the polyphonic complexity of the Bach orchestral sinfonias, the urbanity of Handel's concerti grossi, and Vivaldi's innumerable and endlessly delightful works of this type. But his approach always remained the most international as well as the most local. Two of these concertos, for example, exemplify the "Polish" style appropriate for the Electors of Saxony (Telemann's employers, who were also kings of Poland), with their folky rhythms and groaning bass parts.

Volume Two of the Complete String Concertos of Ignace Pleyel (1757-1831) includes some charming, if undistinguished. music that sounds like Haydn with bits of Mozart mixed in. At one time among the most celebrated of Europe’s composers, Pleyel’s work has fallen into obscurity; so, we can be grateful that some talented instrumentalists are taking up his mantle again. A competent kapellmeister and more than competent master of diverse forms, Pleyel seems to employs the three-movement format for his Viotti-like concertos; the recording gives us the alternative ending, a 4/4 Rondo, to his violin concerto.

The twelve concertos in this recording constitute what is known as a manuscript set. For Vivaldi, as for most of his contemporaries in the early eighteenth century, most sets, usually comprising six or twelve compositions of similar kind, were printed from movable type or engraved and then sold to the general public. Manuscript sets, in contrast, were written out neatly by hand and sold or presented to a single patron. For this reason, they are likely to be ‘customised’ in some way especially relevant to the patron.