When a composer writes 27 concertos for one particular instrument it is not surprising that a few should go unrecorded; so it is with Vivaldi's for the cello, leaving ample leeway for a recording that claims, as this one does, three ''World-Premiere Recordings''. The other three are already in the catalogue; RV401 (LP and CD) RV409 (LP only) and RV538 (LP and CD). The last of these is a curious choice: it is a concerto for two horns and strings in which the cello is the soloist in the here-amputated slow movement, making a strangely muted end to the proceedings and, with enough time available for one or two more concertos, hardly a 'bonus'. Ofra Harnoy has not gained her formidable reputation through her performances of baroque music (this is the first I have heard) but she might easily have done so, for she plays these works magnificently. Her expressive range is entirely appropriate, as is her economical use of vibrato, and her bow never digs too deeply; her ability to produce attenuated sounds that still have breadth and depth recalls that of Jacqueline du Pre, one of her teachers, and though she is forwardly balanced she never dominates by sheer weight of sound.
Vivaldi seems to have had special affection for the dual-register instruments, as witness also the 37 bassoon concertos, and nowhere is it more evident than in the tenderly sung slow movements; that of RV405, the longest movement in the recording, is a gem. The two come together in RV409, a strange but likeable affair: the two soloists begin the first movement (Adagio) alone and the tutti repeatedly interrupts with more animated material (and has the last word), the second (Allegro) begins in the same way but this time the tutti tries to apply the brakes—and finally succeeds. As the annotator says, what is surprising is not how similar many of Vivaldi's concertos are, but how much variety there is in them. The Toronto Chamber Orchestra are neat enough and rarely heavy-handed, it is interesting to read that a harpsichordist, Elizabeth Keenan, was present—it would have been even more so if one could have heard her. For its presentation of three 'new' concertos, and for the superb quality of Harnoy's playing in them, this is a very desirable disc indeed.'