Guglielmo Vivaldi

A celebration of instrumental Baroque splendour! This set present an anthology of Italian Baroque composers, featuring their instrumental output. Obviously the famous composers have their fair share: Vivaldi, Albinoni, Locatelli, Corelli, but also lesser known composers are featured: Barsanti, Bassani, Veracini, Nardini, Stradella, Vitali, Mancini, Platti, Legrenze and many more, over 30 composers! Performances by leading ensembles specialized in the Historically Informed Performance Practice: L'Arte dell'Arco/Federico Guglielmo, Ensemble Cordia/Stefano Veggetti, Violini Capricciosi/Igor Ruhadze, MusicaAmphion/Pieter Jan Belder and many more. A treasure trove of solo concertos, concerti grossi, sinfonias, overtures, trio sonatas and solo sonatas from the Golden Era of the Italian Baroque, era of joy, passion and brilliance!

The charismatic, cosmopolitan cellist Giovanni Sollima joins the instrumentalists of Il Pomo d’Oro for Al-Bunduqiyya – The Lost Concerto.

The so-called “Anna Maria Partbook” consists of an elegantly bound volume in red leather containing the violin parts of 31 violin concertos, of which 26 are by Antonio Vivaldi. It was the personal repertoire of Vivaldi's most gifted pupil, the famous “Anna Maria della Pietà”, who played also the viola d'amore, the mandolin, the theorbo, and the harpsichord. Anna Maria's partbook represents an extraordinary collection of violin concerts of high virtuosity.

Among various instrumental works composed by Vivaldi, there are twenty-seven trio sonatas, most of them written for two violins - either with or without continuo. Twelve of these sonatas were published in 1705 by the Venetian music publisher, Giuseppe Sala in a collection entitled Suonate da Camera a Tre, due Violini, e Violone o Cembalo. This Opus 1 collection contains the earliest known sonatas by Vivaldi. As indicated on the title-page of the collection, they could be played by two violins and violoncello (originally a violone) or by two violins and harpsichord.

These recordings by I Musici, with soloists Salavatore Accardo (violin) and Heinz Holliger (oboe) display both attributes in spades. The recordings were made in 1975. While maybe not displaying the same cutting-edge tempi as the most recent competition (Federico Guglielmo and Il Arte Dell'Arco in the new Brilliant Classics Vivaldi edition) they are still very very good. If you see this set for sale I wouldn't hesitate to grab it.

At first glance, this looks like the concluding volume of a complete recording of Vivaldi’s Op. 1. But, as Michael Talbot points out in a characteristically interesting and informative note, the stronger works are concentrated within the second half of the set. Among them is the best known of the Trios from the collection, the 20 variations on the theme of Spanish origin, La follia. – Nicholas Anderson, Gramophone [5/1998].

Disque passé plutôt inaperçu et qui régalera les vivaldiens. Comme, d'ailleurs, tout ce que font les Arte dell'Arco (et leurs deux solistes Guglielmo).On y retrouve la veine "parodique" du maître, ce qui veut dire qu'il n'hésite pas à recycler parfois ce qu'il a déjà utilisé dans une autre oeuvre (ici, on dira sur un mouvement, tiens! les 4 saisons). Son grand admirateur, un certain Jean-Sébastien Bach (non, ce n'est pas un musicien techno), retiendra la leçon (tel thème de cantate repris dans la Messe en si, par exemple)…

Antonio Vivaldi - I Solisti Italiani - 6 Concerti
EAC+LOG+CUE | APE: 349 MB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Denon "Crest 1000" # COCO-70962 | Country/Year: Japan 2008, 1990
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque, Chamber Music

…I Solisti Italiani continues, both spiritually and sonically, where the original Virtuosi di Roma left off, with creamy, expert, middle-of-the-road performances of Baroque and Classical period music, and occasional 20th-century pieces as well. The ensemble is small - only 12 players, without conductor - but the sound is full and caloric, the playing dapper and disciplined.