Vivaldi 12 Sonatas

Anner Bylsma (born Anne Bijlsma 17 February 1934, The Hague) is a Dutch cellist who plays on both modern, and period instruments in a historically informed style. He took an interest in music from an early age. He studied with Carel van Leeuwen Boomkamp at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and won the Prix d'excellence in 1957.

The artistry of Holliger (b1939) prompted Evelyn Rothwell (Lady Barbirolli) to call him 'The Paganini of the oboe' Holliger's mastery of the oboe ranges over a vast expanse of repertoire, from the baroque to contemporary – Bach to Berio and Zelenka to Zimmermann. His style is notable for its flexibility, agility, integrity and ability to communicate convincingly across the wide range of repertoire he performs. Holliger has done much to champion the oboe music of composers such as Zelenka and Krommer, and has also had over 100 works composed for him by composers including Berio, Carter, Henze, Ligeti, Lutoslawski, Penderecki and Stockhausen.

Pietro degli Antoni (1639-1720) was a founding member of the famous Accademia Filarmonica in his native Bologna, an institution bringing together professional musicians “so well united that they always play together, creating fine sound”. Many famous composers were member: Vitali, Tosi, Colonna, and later Corelli, Bononcini, Torelli and Bassani. Even Mozart, when visiting Bologna, became a member, being highly impressed by the sheer size and quality of the Accademia (..”the music was grave and majestic..” he wrote home).

Pietro degli Antoni (1639-1720) was a founding member of the famous Accademia Filarmonica in his native Bologna, an institution bringing together professional musicians “so well united that they always play together, creating fine sound”. Many famous composers were member: Vitali, Tosi, Colonna, and later Corelli, Bononcini, Torelli and Bassani. Even Mozart, when visiting Bologna, became a member, being highly impressed by the sheer size and quality of the Accademia (..”the music was grave and majestic..” he wrote home).

Over the last 20 years, the Naxos label has done a great deal to obtain its reputation as one of the leading classical guitar labels. Its very first guitarist was Gerald Garcia, who was not slow to show the way forward by extending the rather limited guitar repertoire by making arrangements of pieces originally written for other instruments. This is what he has done here, too: None of the music on this disc was written for guitar, it is all arranged by Garcia himself, who plays a modern guitar and definitely not a baroque instrument.

Nine cello sonatas by Vivaldi have survived. Six of them were published as a set in Paris in about 1740; that set, mistakenly known as the composer's Op. 14, contains the sonatas recorded in this release. The three remaining sonatas come from manuscript collections. All but one of the six works are cast in the slow-fast-slow-fast pattern of movements of the sonata da chiesa. The odd one out, RV46, in fact, retains the four movement sequence but inclines towards the sonata da camera in the use of dance titles. The music of these sonatas is almost consistently interesting, often reaching high points of expressive eloquence, as we find, for example, in the justifiably popular Sonata in E minor, RV40. Christophe Coin brings to life these details in the music with technical assurance and a spirit evidently responsive to its poetic content. Particularly affecting instances of this occur in the third movements of the A minor and the E minor Sonatas where Coin shapes each phrase, lovingly achieving at the same time a beautifully sustained cantabile.