Liszt Ference Chanber Orchestra Vivaldi

Il Farnace is the most re-written and re-proposed of Vivaldi’s operas, it’s like a beloved child who worries his father, and to whom the parent always wants to give the best. Versions of Farnace, two in 1727 and one each in 1730, 1731 and 1732, had been conceived and adapted to the different circumstances for Venice, Prague, Pavia and Mantua, always with a cast to Vivaldi’s satisfaction and with the composer in control of the production.

You're moaning to yourself, "Yet another Four Seasons?" But this disc, believe it or not, is actually worth hearing. Violinist Giuliano Carmignola and the Venice Baroque Orchestra use a slightly different scoring of Vivaldi's masterpiece, the 1996 Ricordi critical edition, and somehow unveil world premieres of three Vivaldi concertos. Their period-instrument performance of The Four Seasons is beautifully played and recorded…
Jason Verlinde

When we refer to the "Bach Double," most classical music aficionados know what's being discussed: Johann Sebastian Bach's Concerto for two violins in D minor, BWV 1043. Apart from reconstructions, it's his only double concerto for two violins. With Antonio Vivaldi, such an abbreviated designation is impossible, as he has 27 – count 'em – 27 double concertos for two violins.

The musicians of The Bach Orchestra will perform Vivaldi’s most famous composition: the Four Seasons. With the Spanish violin virtuoso Enrique Gomez-Cabrero as soloist. Olga Zinovieva is singing the virtuoso arias by Vivaldi.

When the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields began to popularize Vivaldi's music in the 1970s, it was on the cutting edge with its light, warm chamber orchestra sound, burnished to technical perfection yet sounding completely different from its symphonic cousins. Now, a recording like this one, with star violinist Joshua Bell, sounds conservative in comparison with young bucks like Fabio Biondi on the historical-performance side or even the young Dutch firebrand Janine Jansen. This big-budget (by classical standards) release is the kind of thing you don't see so often now, with a big poster showing Bell carefully decked out in a partially undone tie, as well as individual full-color cards reproducing, in Italian and English, the descriptive seasonal sonnets that provide the program for the four concertos. It could have collapsed under its own weight, but Bell pulls it off. Conducting the Academy strings himself, he forges tight, not-overly-sweet recordings of Vivaldi's four familiar concertos, with a nice contrast between orchestra and solo that showcases his easy, compelling agility and his Heifetz-like sharpness and brilliance.

Joachim Raff enjoyed the highest reputation in his lifetime but was later remembered only for his famous Cavatina, an attractive short piece that appeared in many arrangements. Encouraged by Mendelssohn and then by Liszt, he served the latter as an assistant at Weimar, orchestrating Liszt’s earlier symphonic poems. His own work as a composer started in earnest when he left Weimar in 1856, to settle in Wiesbaden and then, from 1877, in Frankfurt as director of the Hoch Conservatory, a position he retained until his death in 1882.

When we refer to the "Bach Double," most classical music aficionados know what's being discussed: Johann Sebastian Bach's Concerto for two violins in D minor, BWV 1043. Apart from reconstructions, it's his only double concerto for two violins. With Antonio Vivaldi, such an abbreviated designation is impossible, as he has 27 – count 'em – 27 double concertos for two violins.

Vivaldi's music isn't just a concert hall favourite; it's also been featured in many films.

A rare project of Vivaldi's Viola d'Amore Concerto performed with viola d'amore, mandolin & guitar orchestra! Vivaldi composed several concertos for solo viola d'amore for his students at the Pietà Conservatory.

The wedding in 1568 of Renate of Lorraine to Wilhelm V, heir to the throne of the Duke of Bavaria, was a sumptuous, 18-day spectacular designed to rival those of the Italian courts. Orlande de Lassus had been the court’s maestro di cappella since 1556. Using an eye-witness account of the event, Ensemble Origo presents a hypothetical reconstruction of some of his musical contributions – a Te Deum, the moresca (a genre related to the villanella), and an improvised comedy – thereby shedding light on some of the various meanings that the music had for its 16th-century listeners.