Suonatori

This is a welcome addition to my collection. These little gems sparkle and make me want to look at other Vivaldi pieces. It's time to go beyond the Four Seasons. These pieces show compositional variety, the playing is nuanced and exciting, and the SACD recording is superb.

In Venice in the 18th century, Christmas was celebrated as only Venetians know how to celebrate: according to one account, more wax was burnt to light up the three storeys of the Procuratie on Christmas Eve, than in all the rest of Italy in an entire year. At the same time, rather than being an independent feast – and as such, the most singularly important one of the year – the Venetian Christmas was also part of the city's famous Carnevale, which at this time lasted for almost six months. This lent a rather special character to the celebrations, compared with for instance the more clerically inclined Rome.

In France, during the reign of Louis XIV, the religious service known as Tenebrae was one of the most distinctive ceremonies in the liturgical year. Gradually, in the course of the office, the candles were extinguished, recalling the darkness that covered the earth when Jesus died on the cross. Charpentier composed Tenebrae settings throughout his career, thirty-one lessons in all. The three presented here, written for the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of Holy Week, are scored for a solo bass voice, accompanied by an orchestra composed of recorders, oboes, strings, bassoon and organ.

Composed during a few hectic weeks in the autumn of 1739, the set was partly intended by Handel – renowned mainly as a writer for singers and as an organist – to reinforce his stature as an instrumental composer. The result is music that exhibits a great variety of musical thought and invention, here interpreted by the highly acclaimed Polish ensemble Arte dei Suonatori making their third recording for BIS. The recordings are the fruit of a regular collaboration between the ensemble and French conductor Martin Gester, focusing on the baroque concerto.

Although GRUPPO AUTONOMO SUONATORI – or G.A.S. – has existed well over two decades by now, no sooner than last summer they released their debut album via Black Widow. And a very fine RPI album it is. The musicianship is excellent and so is the production. Stylistically the band could be taken as a prime example of the very faithful contemporary representation of the classic Italian prog…

A long time ago, back in the 1970s, period instrument performances mostly sounded sweet and low down. Part of the reason for this was the catgut strings and the lower tuning, and part of the reason was that players seemed to prefer a mellower and rounder tone. But time passed and period instrument performances became more and more strident until they became nearly painful to listen to by the late '80s. Violinist Rachel Podger has recaptured the mellow sounds of yesterday by producing a warm and almost human sound with her 1739 Persarinius instrument.

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.

Noi non ci saremo, Vol. 2 is the second volume of a double collection of the Italian musical group Consorzio Suonatori Indipendenti, published in 2001.