Composer: Tomaso Albinoni, Antonio Lotti, Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, Giovanni Porta, Francesco Maria Veracini, Antonio Vivaldi
Performer: La Serenissima, Simon Munday, Peter Whelan, Mhairi Lawson
Conductor: Adrian Chandler
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Avie
Catalogue: AV2257
Release: 2012
Size: 356 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. anon.: Si la gondola avere
Pollarolo: Sinfonia to La Vendetta d’Amore for Trumpet
02. Allegro assai
03. Largo
04. Spiritoso
Albinoni: Sinfonia for Strings & Continuo in G, Si 7
05. 1. Allegro
06. 2. Largo è sempre piano
07. 3. Allegro
Vivaldi: Concerto for Bassoon, Strings & Continuo in C, RV 477
08. 1. Allegro
09. 2. Largo
10. 3. Allegro
11. anon.: Cara Nina el bon to sesto for soprano & guitar
12. Veracini: Fuga, o capriccio con quattro soggetti in d for strings & continuo in d
Lotti: Alma Ride Exulta Mortalis for Soprano, Strings & Continuo
13. Aria- Allegro
14. Recitativo
15. Ritornello- Adagio
16. Aria- Adagio
17. Alleluja
Albinoni: Sinfonia to Il Nome Glorioso in Terra Santificato in Cielo for Trumpet, String & Continuo
18. 1. Allegro
19. 2. Adagio
20. 3. Allegro
21. anon.: No stè a condanarme for soprano & continuo
Vivaldi: Concerto for Violin, Strings & Continuo in E, RV 278
22. Allegro Molto- Largo- Allegro Molto- Andante
23. Largo
24. Allegro
Porta: Sinfonia for trumpet, strings & continuo in D
25. Allegro assai
26. Andante
27. Allegro
Vivaldi: Il Fidarsi alla Spene for Soprano, Strings & Continuo from L’Olimpiade, RV 725
28. 1. Recitativo
29. 2. Aria- Largo
30. 3. Recitativo
31. 4. Aria- Allegro
British early music ensemble La Serenissima has presented assortments of Italian Baroque music in a popular “sampler” fashion, with varying degrees of success. This night in Venice makes a good place to start with the group. The concept is not entirely a fanciful one, for even in Vivaldi’s day the city of canals had passed the peak of its political power and was beginning to be seen as a repository of culture and a tourist destination.
Conductor Adrian Chandler offers a possible collection of music that a visitor might have heard on a series of occasions: “arriving by gondola,” at “a private concert,” twice more on a “journey by gondola,” at “music for Compline,” at a “serenata,” at “a concert from the Ospedale della Pietà” (the girls’ school where Vivaldi was music master), and “at the opera house.”
The result is a more varied program of Venetian music of the early 18th century than is generally available, ranging from the anonymous gondolier songs to virtuoso concertos by Vivaldi and Veracini, to a sacred aria by Antonio Lotti (who not so long ago was the only known composer of the bunch and is now all but ignored), to operatic selections.
These last may be the highlights, thanks to the easily graceful voice of soprano Mhairi Lawson; the orchestra itself tends toward a sweet, homogeneous sound that has fallen a bit out of fashion for Vivaldi and his contemporaries. But this is a worthwhile collection of Italian Baroque music for the curious general listener.