Vivaldi Violin Concertos Carmignola

An eminent interpreter of Vivaldi, Giuliano Carmignola has always had a great affinity with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, as can be heard in his landmark recordings of the Violin Sonatas with Andrea Marcon (2002), the Violin Concertos with Concerto Köln (2014, Diapason d'or), and the Sonatas & Partitas (2018), which Gramophone judged to be "a first-rate choice among the recordings of these works on period instruments, despite the competition”. Carmignola’s latest project took shape during the Covid lockdowns of 2020 and offers a new and sometimes experimental reading of Bach’s Suites à Violoncello Solo senza Basso, in which he highlights new details and exalts the choreatic character and the brilliance of many of the suites’ movements.

The trend in historical performances of Vivaldi's violin concertos has been to have the violinist serve as leader of the ensemble, as would likely have happened in Vivaldi's time. But Vivaldi's music, like Bach's, contains multitudes of ideas, and one way to look at the concertos, especially the late ones heard here, is to regard them as part, and indeed as a foundation, of the virtuoso tradition that grew up over the 18th century.

These 25 tracks transport you to the heart of Baroque Venice. Vivaldi was a hugely prolific composer – enjoy a selection of his 500 concertos from the incomparable Four Seasons to La Stravaganza and La tempesta di mare as well as vocal and choral works from performers such as Daniel Hope, Magdalena Kozená, Avi Avital and Trevor Pinnock.

This disc is really something special. Collectors are so spoiled for choice in the baroque repertoire at present, particularly on period instruments, but even in a glutted market this disc stands out for imaginative repertoire selection and outstanding interpretation. Its particularly gratifying, in these days of complete editions of everything, to see a discerning artist like Giuliano Carmignola choose four remarkably diverse works by three different composers, and simply play the living daylights out of them. The result roundly disproves the notion that Italian baroque violin concertos all sound the same, a point made even more forcefully by imaginative continuo work (on harpsichord, lute, and organ) by the Venice Baroque Orchestra that helps to emphasize each pieces individual character. The two Vivaldi concertos, for example, couldnt be more different.

Violinist Giuliano Carmignola and conductor Andrea Marcon have served up another reminder that Vivaldi, in the right hands, is so much more than sonic wallpaper. These late Vivaldi concertos, given their premiere recordings here, are, for sure, more of the same musical illustrations, birdsongs, and harmonic sequences; what stands out is the aural handling they are given by Carmignola and the Venice Baroque Orchestra under Marcon.

This is a delightfull performance of some of Vivaldi's best known concertos, but don't be put off if you already have most of them, baroque music is all about interpretation, much pleasure can be had from listening to different ones.