Bach’s cycle of seven concertos for keyboard and orchestra has come down to us in an autograph score which – in view of the loss of most of the other original manuscripts of his music for instrumental ensemble – is one of the most important sources in this area of his output.
Certainly, there are the Four Seasons and all the violin concertos which are more famous and virtuosic than other works. But it is here, in his concertos for solo strings, that Antonio Vivaldi showcases his writing talent at its highest and purest level: concise, vivacious, deep and immediately emotional. A Vivaldi in the firmament, served here with passion and excellence by Accademia Bizantina.
According to the composer and conductor Clarence Lucas, writing in 1935, “of the merits of d’Ambrosio… he always maintains his standard of elegance and never becomes commonplace”. By the way d’Ambrosio’s instrumental music was highly appreciated by contemporaries and played by the most acclaimed interpreters of his time, though nowadays seems hélas almost neglected. Alfredo D’Ambrosio (Naples, June 13, 1871-Paris, December 28, 1914) was a Neapolitan violinist and composer studying in Naples Conservatoire with Eusebio Dworzak, Ferdinando Pinto, Enrico Bossi, then in Madrid with Pablo Sarasate and in London with August Wilhelmj.
A Gramophone editor's Choice, this double album brings together the third volume of Concerti per archi (strings) and the complete Concerti for viola d'amore by the Venetian genius. The Accademia Bizantina and its iconic chief Ottavio Dantone bring to this release a talent so great it is matched only by their dedication. The Vivaldi Edition is an ambitious project begun at the beginning of the century to record some 450 works by Vivaldi, many of them unknown, found in the National University Library of Turin. With the collaboration of today’s leading interpreters of Baroque music we are making available to the public hundreds of works, many in the composer’s own hand and covering every musical genre.
This CD features the strings of a conductorless Swedish chamber orchestra, Camerata Nordica, with the distinguished violinist Ulf Wallin sitting in the concertmaster's seat (and playing the solo violin part in the Adagio amoroso). They are capable of digging deeply into the strings in the dramatic sections but where they really shine are in the lyrical passages which they play with a silken sheen. The five works are more or less of a piece, all identifiably in Atterberg's post-Straussian high-Romantic style. The largest piece is the four movement 'Sinfonia per archi' ('Symphony for Strings') which is a recomposition of an earlier string quintet. In places it reminds me of Elgar's Serenade for Strings. I particularly like II, Allegro molto, with its insistent motto theme that modulates higher and higher as it unwinds.