Vivaldi Naive Violin

Half the concertos here are dedicated to Johann Georg Pisendel, a stern German soloist who led the Dresden court orchestra and was close friends with J.S. Bach, Telemann and Zelenka, all of whose music he often performed or even premiered. Pisendel adopted the other Vivaldi concertos on this CD into his repertoire, too - copying them out in his own hand from the originals. This theme does not mean that Vivaldi writes in a Germanic way: he’s still his usual fiercely lively self. (Brian Reinhart)

This recording is part of the Naïve label's Vivaldi Edition, a complete recording, scheduled to run to 100 discs, of a trove of Vivaldi manuscripts unearthed at the library of the National University of Turin. The recordings have been divided up among various mostly young Italian Baroque interpreters, with a pleasing variety of approaches.

This tenth volume of violin concertos marks the return of Julien Chauvin and his Concert de la Loge to the Vivaldi Edition, with works linked to Pisendel, a major musical figure in the court of Dresden in the 18th century. Julien Chauvin and his Concert de la Loge released a hugely successful volume of Vivaldi concertos with a theatrical theme in 2020. In this new album they perform works focusing on Johann Georg Pisendel (1687-1755), konzertmeister at the Dresden Court chapel, and pupil and friend of Vivaldi, who played a key role in the popularity of the Red Priest's music in Dresden.

The Vivaldi Concerto for mandolin and orchestra, RV 425, was an essential component of the 1970s classical LP collection – with the mandolin amped up so loud in order to compete with a large orchestral string section that it sounded like an electric guitar blazing through an arena rock concert. Things have improved a bit since then, but balance between soloists and ensemble has always been a problem with the works featured on this release. The problem has rarely been solved so nicely as it is here. The group of string players used, a fine pan-European set of historical-performance specialists, is not especially small, and lutenist/guitarist/mandolinist Rolf Lislevand is elegant and clean but not arresting on his own. The key is how the whole ensemble works together to bring out the solos, sensitively shaping lines while keeping dynamic levels low enough to set off the soloists – and, in trio-sonata works, defining the relationships among the soloists themselves…

Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante expand the Vivaldi edition with the eleventh volume of violin concertos bearing the name of one of the most famous interpreters of the early eighteenth century: Anna Maria. Hailed as a "child prodigy" and outstanding artist of the Ospedale della Pietà, where Vivaldi taught for forty years, Anna Maria was an accomplished violinist, but also mastered the viola d'amore and theorbo, as well as the harpsichord, cello, lute, and mandolin. Her reputation spread throughout Europe, and we know that Vivaldi dedicated at least twenty-four concertos to her.

Vivaldi could not have the same confidence with the bassoon as he had with the violin; but this seems to have stimulated him to invent a writing of interesting virtuosity in the 39 solo concerts for this instrument which few great composers dedicated so much attention to with such high quality results. In the precious Vivaldi Edition by Naïve the recording of all the bassoon concerts continues in the best way: after the flattering awards obtained from the first cd in 2010, a second one comes out, always the result of the collaboration between the talented Sergio Azzolini (soloist and director) and the ensemble L'Aura Soave (a formation of musicians not only Italian founded in Cremona by Diego Cantalupi in 1995). The seven concerts performed here are those that in the Ryom catalog carry the numbers 499, 472, 490, 496, 504, 483 and 470 and are of great variety and inventive wealth, as always in the best Vivaldi. The use of "original" instruments and the perceived stylistic sensibility are combined with a clear and free exploitation of the esthetics and vitality of these pages, where it sometimes strikes the melancholic tint evoked by the solo instrument.

–Paolo Petazzi

The project to record all of the 450-odd works by Vivaldi held by the National University Library of Turin proceeds apace. It only seems yesterday that I was reviewing the opera "Orlando Furioso". For that set a very radical band of period performers was chosen, the Ensemble Matheus. L’Astrée – a Turin group in spite of its French name – are less radical in the sense that they don’t make their instruments rasp and bite, but I would say no less imaginative. With the help of a really lifelike recording – the instruments truly seemed to be in my listening room – the music just leaps off the page.

In this second volume of the complete recording of Vivaldi's chamber concertos by L'Astrée, three of these fascinating works are coupled with three chamber cantatas. All these treasures of course come from the incomparable collections of the Biblioteca nazionale in Turin, but the link between the two repertoires does not stop there. First of all, the energy and virtuosity that this composer of genius requires of his musicians are very much the same, whether he is writing for the human voice or for the various instruments used in the concertos, which go from a single solo flute in the concerto La notte RV 104 to the extravagant combination, in RV 97, of viola d'amore, two horns, two oboes and bassoon.

The Vivaldi Concerto for mandolin and orchestra, RV 425, was an essential component of the 1970s classical LP collection – with the mandolin amped up so loud in order to compete with a large orchestral string section that it sounded like an electric guitar blazing through an arena rock concert. Things have improved a bit since then, but balance between soloists and ensemble has always been a problem with the works featured on this release. The problem has rarely been solved so nicely as it is here. The group of string players used, a fine pan-European set of historical-performance specialists, is not especially small, and lutenist/guitarist/mandolinist Rolf Lislevand is elegant and clean but not arresting on his own.

Vivaldi’s music enjoyed a cult following in Dresden after its introduction by the composer’s pupil Johann Pisendel, and listening to these works it is not hard to hear why. The two G minor concertos are scored for violin, two recorders, two oboes and strings (with an extra solo oboe in RV576), while the F majors both deploy a line-up of violin, two oboes, two horns and strings – rich stuff, reflecting the sumptuous sound-world of the Electoral orchestra.