Rachel Podger

Antonio Vivaldi - La Cetra: 12 Violin Concertos
Rachel Podger / Holland Baroque Society
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz: 2,58 GB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Channel Classics # - | Country/Year: Europe 2012
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque, Violin | Source: Official Download

"When listening to this CD I turned the volume up just slightly past my normal listening level, and I was rewarded with a room-filling reproduction of what I’d heard in Amsterdam. "Uitstekend!" Highly recommended." ~ClassicsToday.com

Telemann: Twelve Fantasies for Solo Violin 1735 - Rachel Podger [2006]
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque | Label: Channel | Country/Year: Netherlands, 2006 | 5% Rec. Info
FLAC (tracks) | EAC+CUE+LOG+PDF Booklet | Total Time: 75:02 | 399 MB

This is a true gem from the Baroque era that is rarely played or recorded. These fantasies for solo violin were written in 1735, only 15 yrs after Bach wrote his infinitely famous Sonatas and Partidas for solo violin. Fans of Bach looking for new music will be happy listening to these fresh works. I really enjoy the imagination and creativity displayed here, plenty of rhythmic diversity and unattached musical ideas to spare.

For those who already appreciate Rachel Podger's unique brand of magic I'll just say that this return to recorded Bach is lovely and all that one could hope for. All that one looks for is here, and there is more. For those who are not familiar with Rachel Podger, she is a unique voice among violinists. She has absorbed the principles of late Baroque performance practice and made them a part of herself, so that the articulation and inflection of that rhetorical approach to music flows from her as a natural idiom of expression.

This issue completes Cooper’s and Podger’s collected recordings of Mozart’s music for keyboard and violin. At first sight, Volumes 7 and 8 might seem to consist of leftovers – Vol 8 devoted to a set of six sonatas (K10-15) written in London when Mozart was eight, and Vol 7, apart from the two variation sets composed shortly after he settled in Vienna, containing a sonata dating from his 1766 stay in The Hague, plus two fragments, completed after Mozart’s death by Maximilian Stadler. In the event, however, both CDs are full of interest.

The authority on Rameau in the Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians spent a lot of words on these pieces. All YOU have to know is that the usual "continuo" situation of the bass instrument playing the same notes as those found under the harpsichordist's left hand is not present here. This is not a suite with violin on top and bass viol for continuo - but "concerted" harpsichord pieces with the help of a violin and a bass viol. The first and last suites are my favorites, but if you think you like French baroque music, you will thoroughly enjoy the whole disc.

In the disc's liner notes we're urged to judge Vivaldi's place "in the pantheon of great baroque composers" on the "stand-alone quality of his music" and not on errant or offhand claims of this or that musicologist. Well, owing to violinist Rachel Podger's stunning, fiercely energetic, ardently expressive, and technically assured performances and the ravishing orchestral support from the Polish period-instrument ensemble Arte Dei Suonatori, our task as listeners certainly is an easy and prodigiously enjoyable one. And that's not all the good news: this is truly one of those sonic "events" where the performers have an almost palpable presence, their sound is absolutely faithful and natural, and the balances are right on. Go ahead and turn this one up–you'll be immediately bathed in glorious, vibrant string sound, and be pleasantly surprised by the potential of Vivaldi's music to actually hold your undivided attention for an hour–maybe more.

Rachel Podger's growing reputation among early-music enthusiasts is buttressed by this set of Bach's sonatas for violin and continuo. Her intonation is always on target, her tone sweet but not cloying…

An expert in the field of Baroque violin, Rachel Podger is back from the studio with another Bach album. This time, accompanied by the Brecon Baroque ensemble, she's focusing on some of Bach's double and triple concertos - BWV 1043 for Two Violins, BWV 1044 for Harpsichord, Flute and Violin, BWV for Violin and Oboe, and the Concerto for Three Violins, BWV 1064.

We bundled the eight Mozart cd’s that Rachel Podger and Gary Cooper recorded over the last ten years into an atrractive box, with an informative note from producer Jonathan Freeman-Attwoord. The duo partnership Gary Cooper and Rachel Podger has taken them worldwide.

The duo partnership Gary Cooper & Rachel Podger has taken them worldwide. These recordings of Mozart’s Complete Sonatas for Keyboard & Violin have received countless awards & accolades, including multiple Diapason d’Or awards & Gramophone Editor’s Choices, & hailed as ‘benchmark’ recordings.