Composer: Antonio Vivaldi
Performer: La Serenissima, Peter Whelan
Conductor: Adrian Chandler
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Avie
Catalogue: AV2344
Release: 2015
Size: 382 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
The Four Seasons: Spring, RV269
01. I. Allegro
02. II. Largo
03. III. Allegro
The Four Seasons: Summer, RV315
04. I. Allegro non molto – Allegro
05. II. Adagio – Presto
06. III. Presto
The Four Seasons: Autumn, RV293
07. I. Allegro – Larghetto – Allegro assai / molto
08. II. Adagio molto
09. III. Allegro
The Four Seasons: Winter, RV297
10. I. Allegro non molto
11. II. Largo
12. III. Allegro – Lento – Allegro
Concerto for Bassoon, Strings & Continuo in B-Flat Major, RV. 501, “La Notte”
13. I. Largo – Andante molto
14. II. Presto: Fantasmi – Presto – Adagio
15. III. Adagio: Il Sonno
16. IV. Allegro: Sorge l’Aurora
Concerto for Violin ‘in tromba marina’, Strings & Continuo in D Major, RV. 221
17. I. Allegro
18. II. Andante
19. III. Allegro
Concerto ‘per Maestro dè Morzin’ for Bassoon, Strings & Continuo in G Minor, RV. 496
20. I. Allegro
21. II. Largo
22. III. Allegro
Concerto for Violin ‘in tromba marina’, Strings & Continuo in G Major, RV. 311
23. I. Allegro
24. II. Andante
25. III. Allegro
Adrian Chandler and his period-instrument ensemble La Serenissima celebrate their 21st anniversary with a vibrant and original recording of the most popular piece of classical music of all time, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. Also included are virtuoso concertos for bassoon and the violin in tromba marina, an instrument used in Vivaldi’s day that Ade has had specially constructed for a selection of world-premiere recordings.
Adrian Chandler, who founded the period-instrument ensemble La Serenissima twenty-one years ago, has produced a dozen enlightening, acclaimed and award-winning albums for Avie. He has made world-premiere recordings of rediscovered works by Vivaldi and his 17th-century Italian contemporaries. He consistently applies a unique touch that combines erudition with approachability.
After many years of anticipation, Chandler turns his attention to the touchstone of Vivaldi’s concerto output, The Four Seasons. As one has come to expect, he brings something unique to an interpretation brimming with vitality and originality. He has created his own, new edition based on the only surviving manuscript of these works.
Putting this most popular of classical works into context, Chandler rounds out the recording with Vivaldi concertos for bassoon, including the famous La Notte, and world-premiere recordings of two concertos for the violin in tromba marina, a hitherto obsolete instrument that was used during Vivaldi’s lifetime, and that he has helped to recreate and bring back to life for 21st century music lovers.
There are several attractions to this release by violinist Adrian Chandler and his English historical-instrument group La Serenissima. One is the presence of a pair of world premieres, which despite the size of Vivaldi’s output are not as common as they used to be. These are a pair of concertos for the violin in tromba marina, an instrument so rare that one had to be reconstructed for this recording. It’s a three-stringed violin, apparently an elaboration of a monochord that was intended to evoke the sound of a marine trumpet (hence the name). Vivaldi is the only composer known to have written for it, and as usual he was brilliant in making use of its capabilities, writing open chords of a kind that did not appear in any of his other compositions. You also get unusually sensitive performances of a pair of bassoon concertos by Baroque bassoonist Peter Whelan. But none of this would have mattered had the main enterprise, a recording of the much-played Four Seasons, not succeeded. The graphics blurb blandly states that the players “use characterization” to shape their reading, but that’s putting it mildly.
Chandler offers an explosive, high-contrast reading in the vein of the Italian school of the 2000s, and the thunderstorms and such get very exciting. He buttresses his wilder moments with reference to the sonnets Vivaldi included with the Four Seasons as a program, and these are included in the CD booklet. The performance uses a hand copy of the work, possibly relying on an earlier version that, Chandler argues, matches the sonnets more closely. The performance is a rollicking, foot-stomping affair that exuberantly breaks into heavy ornamentation at a few points, and some of this doesn’t quite work. The famous center movement of the “Winter” concerto, for instance, is more of a moderate snowstorm than a silent winter landscape. The sound, recorded at the Hospital of the Cross in Winchester, UK, is a bit hollow; the location was perhaps suggested by the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice for which many of these pieces were composed, but that was not really a hospital nor even, as is often stated, an orphanage. These are the only complaints, though, about a very fine outing from a fast-rising British band.