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Vivaldi: Concerti per mandolini

Antonio Vivaldi - Vivaldi: Concerti per mandolini Audio CD

A fair review of the Antonio Vivaldi "Vivaldi: Concerti per mandolini" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Antonio Vivaldi reviews here, or go back to the Antonio Vivaldi tabs.

Band: Antonio Vivaldi
Title: Vivaldi: Concerti per mandolini
Rating:

Release Date: 2003-01-07
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Double Mandolin Concerto, for 2 mandolins, strings & continuo in G major, RV 532: I. Allegro 2: Double Mandolin Concerto, for 2 mandolins, strings & continuo in G major, RV 532: II. Andante 3: Double Mandolin Concerto, for 2 mandolins, strings & continuo in G major, RV 532: III. Allegro 4: Concerto in tromba marina, for 2 violins, 2 recorders, 2 mandolins, 2 chalumeaux, 2 theorbos, cello, strings & continuo in C, RV 558: 5: Concerto in tromba marina, for 2 violins, 2 recorders, 2 mandolins, 2 chalumeaux, 2 theorbos, cello, strings & continuo in C, RV 558: 6: Concerto in tromba marina, for 2 violins, 2 recorders, 2 mandolins, 2 chalumeaux, 2 theorbos, cello, strings & continuo in C, RV 558: 7: Concerto for violin, oboe, 2 recorders, 2 oboes, bassoon, strings & continuo in G minor, RV 576: I. [Allegro] 8: Concerto for violin, oboe, 2 recorders, 2 oboes, bassoon, strings & continuo in G minor, RV 576: II. Larghetto 9: Concerto for violin, oboe, 2 recorders, 2 oboes, bassoon, strings & continuo in G minor, RV 576: III. Allegro 10: Concerto for 2 violins, 2 cellos, strings & continuo in D major, RV 564: I. Allegro 11: Concerto for 2 violins, 2 cellos, strings & continuo in D major, RV 564: II. Largo 12: Concerto for 2 violins, 2 cellos, strings & continuo in D major, RV 564: III. Allegro 13: Violin Concerto, for violin, strings & continuo in G minor, RV 319: I. Allegro 14: Violin Concerto, for violin, strings & continuo in G minor, RV 319: II. [Lento] 15: Violin Concerto, for violin, strings & continuo in G minor, RV 319: III. [Allegro] 16: Mandolin Concerto, for mandolin, strings & continuo in C major, RV 425: I. [Allegro] 17: Mandolin Concerto, for mandolin, strings & continuo in C major, RV 425: II. Largo 18: Mandolin Concerto, for mandolin, strings & continuo in C major, RV 425: III. [Allegro] 19: Concerto for 3 violins, oboe, viola all'inglese, chalmeleau, 2 cellos, harpsichord, strings & continuo in C, RV 555: I. Allegro 20: Concerto for 3 violins, oboe, viola all'inglese, chalmeleau, 2 cellos, harpsichord, strings & continuo in C, RV 555: II. Largo a piac 21: Concerto for 3 violins, oboe, viola all'inglese, chalmeleau, 2 cellos, harpsichord, strings & continuo in C, RV 555: III. Allegro

Great Music, Mediocre Recording
I checked the radio station's line-up and they send me to this recording. I heard Vivaldi's Concerto In C Major (diverse instruments) 558 on the radio and had to buy it. Well, this is definitely NOT the track they played on the radio. This track especially is muffled, slow, and lacks the energy the piece requires. This CD itself is OK. I am happy to have it in my collection but is not something I would recommend to others.

After doing some research and finding out what is out there (especially for 558), I bought and am thoroughly happy with [Vivaldi: Concerti "Con molti istromenti" - The English Concert - Pinnock]. Both albums are on amazon MP3 and iTunes, so listen and compare both before buying, but I'd highly recommend the Pinnock, it's a much better choice.

Viva Vivaldi!

Of course Igor was right in a sense. This is the perfect CD to counter Strawinski's dead-pan remark that Vivaldi just wrote one concerto 500 times. It hasn't been untill the last 25 years or so that a clear image of Vivaldi's versatile genious has emerged.

This is a Vivaldi CD that has everything to it. The nearest compeditor is perhaps Trevor Pinnock's excellent recording on ARCHIV, which also features the two mandoline concerti and the Concerto "con molti strumenti" in C major.

Fabio Biondi and his Europa Galante however offers an even more imaginative playing. The G minor concerto for the Saxon Court (RV 576) for violin, 2 recorders, 3 oboes and bassoon has a spellbinding intensity to it. The tutti "gusto barbarico" unisono passages reminds one of Zelenka and Pisendel in their most threatening, masculine concertos.

You will also get to hear several magnificient solos from the Maestro himself. Biondi is perhaps on his most moving and poetical in the G minor concerto dedicated to Johann Georg Pisendel (RV 319). The first movement quotes a Salve Regina (RV 618).

The mandoline concerti bustles with motives of song birds and war-like stretto passages (especially the one for solo mandoline (RV 425). The pure magnetical shimmer of the mandoline above the pizzicati strings in RV 425 in the slow second movement is also most movingly conveyed of Giovanni Scaramuzzino.

This is a must have for all lovers of good music! .

Finally, Fast Enough!!!!
I really do recommend this CD and also will be buying more of Fabio Biondi's materials as time goes on. The Concerto for Diverse Instruments (called Two Mandolins on this CD) a piece that I had an old LP of with Bernstein & the NY Philharmonic, but until now, no one has really played it with the speed and spirit that old LP recording had. While he's no Bernstein, his work on this particular piece surpasses that of the great master!.

Study in Color
This is one of the most bizarre concerti grosso that has ever been composed; it is scored for 2 violini in trombe marina, 2 recorders, 2 mandolins, 2 chalemeaux, 2 theorbos and cello, in addition to strings and continuo (performed here on harpsichord). Admittedly I bought this CD because it was the only recording of RV 558 that I could find in Hong kong. Clearly Vivaldi wanted to make a splash with this piece and he threw in everything in the back closet; the alternation of tone colors is really amazing.

A word about these instruments, working backwards. The theorbo is an obsolete but astonishingly lovely member of the lute family; it's something like a cross between a harp (with 8 unfretted bass strings that can sound only a single note) and a twelve string guitar (with 6 pairs of fretted strings) but pitched low--the upper two strings are not considerably higher than the two strings below them, which makes for ease of fingering but limits the upper range. The chalemeaux are precursors of the clarinet and are aurally difficult to distinguish from their progeny. Mandolins are plucked/strummed stringed instruments with 4 pairs of strings tuned like a violin, and these instruments were most likely played by violinists. The violins in trombe marina are somewhat controversial; Europa Galante come down firmly on the side of the score that these are essentially regular violins fixed with an asymmetric bridge which causes a sort of buzzing or rattling sound rather similar to the buzziness of the harpsichord, oddly enough, and which was thought to imitate the sound of the obsolete and incredibly bizarre tromba marina. But other scholars have argued that the parts were meant for performance on actual trombe marina. The "Sea Trumpet" was in fact a stringed instrument thought to sound like a trumpet but be more agile (trumpets in those times did not have valves and so had a very limited pitch choice--they were essentially bugles. ). It has only a single melodic string, rather long, but up to 50 strings that resonate with sympathetic vibration with the melodic string. To make things even more curious, only harmonics were played on the instrument, throwing the intonation of certain pitches completely out of the norm. The tromba marina gets its name in part because it was said to be heard best at a distance, as over a body of water. I can testify that this is true--it's really a hideous sound that you wouldn't want to hear close up, something like a viola being scratched against a chalkboard. It's hard for me to believe that Vivaldi really composed this piece not just for one tromba marina, but for two; beyond the horror of the noise lies the fact that the parts probably aren't even close to possible on the tromba marina, but lie perfectly well on the violin.

At any rate, the piece is about color in a way that probably no one other than Bach conceived of for a very long time. And herein lies my complaint (a minor one); the performance is lovely, but I sometimes find the harpsichord overwhelming. It's especially difficult to hear the theorbos--they're so low; and to distinguish the violins in trombe marina sometimes--they match the harpsichord sound too much. Granted, in the Concerto RV 555, the two harpsichords are solo instruments and should be treated as such. But how RV 558 would flourish with less harpsichord--it would be such a treat.

At any rate, these are all delightful pieces, really some of Vivaldi at his best if you're tired of the Four Seasons, and certainly worthwhile performances. .

Vivaldi and Europa Galante Make a Joyful Noise
Certainly he can be faulted, as he always will, for falling back on too-obvious formulae (those oft-cited repeated sequences of his), but as for sounding alike: Just try the jovial, gallant first movement of RV 425 for solo mandolin and follow it with the somber, near-tragic opening of RV 319 for violin, oboes, and bassoon. As all reviewers on this page seem to agree, the first order of business is to jettison the old saw that Vivaldi wrote the same concerto 500 times. Next, give RV 558 a spin; how different the grand, heroic sweep of this first movement!

Now that we've disposed of the chestnut about the sameness of the concerti, we can talk about the performances of Biondi and Europa Galante. I find them enthrallingly virtuosic in the Bach-like noodlings required of the two violins and two cellos in RV 564, a truly captivating work reminiscent, for me, of the Third Brandenburg. On the other hand, Biondi captures perfectly the sober mood of RV 319, where sentiment overrules virtuosity.

The two concertos for mandolins (RV 532 and RV 425) are some of Vivaldi's most genial, and they emerge with the right sense of dash and wit, while the two concerti RV 558 and RV 555 for "molti strumenti" make a grand noise, especially those raspy, rattling violini in tromba marina! On the other hand, the recorders, chalumeaux, theorbos, and cellos add a tenderness and grace in their solos that balance out the acerbity of these strange instruments. RV 555 increases the stereophonic effects with two harpsichords and with three violins against two viole all'inglese and the aforementioned cellos. In all, it's a remarkable sound world Vivaldi created in these two works, like nothing else in the concerto literature, and the virtuosi of Europa Galante make the music sound every bit as important as it should.

The recording, made in a church, is both close-up and highly reverberant, which takes a little getting used to, but once the ear adjusts, it reveals the dividends paid by the close miking. The solos all emerge with crystal clarity and timbral purity, while the ensemble playing is detailed and analytical without being clinical, thanks to that reverb. Though the recording tends to highlight the high end of things, it is probably true to the big, bright sound picture Vivaldi "saw" when he conducted his all-girl orchestra at the Ospedale della Pieta.

An exciting CD indeed.

You can see a complete list of all Antonio Vivaldi discography, or go back to the Antonio Vivaldi tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.