The seven concertos on this new disc from Virgin are mainly well known and well contrasted. Three of them feature brass or wind instruments in a solo role, a fourth features a cello while the remaining three are concertos for two, three of four violins. Much is made of the orchestra's commitment to reaching a ''vast new audience through the music we play''. Splendid, but this is the music that everyone plays, as often as not with the same commitment. In fact, the London Chamber Orchestra, founded by Anthony Bernard in 1921, plays it rather well so what is all the fuss about?
The soloists, by and large, show affection for Vivaldi's considerable lyrical gifts—Gordon Hunt's expressive playing of the Larghetto of the Oboe Concerto in C major (RV447) is a case in point—and the strings of the orchestra are crisp in ensemble and warm in tone. Sometimes tempos are unduly and uncomfortably pushed along, as in the finale of the Concerto in C major for two trumpets (RV537), but for the most part I found them effective. There is plenty of embellishment not only in the solo playing but also, with less justification, in the ripieno playing. Note values are clipped here and there, as in the first movement of the Concerto for two trumpets but there is much else that is very enjoyable. One of the high points of the disc for me is Andrew Shulman's cello playing in the elegiac Concerto in C minor (RV401); and he is sensitively supported by the orchestra and by a discreet organ continuo which makes a welcome contrast with the fussy and over-assertive harpsichord in the Concerto for two trumpets. Only an occasional passage in the finale loses its poise.
I am less enthusiastic about the violin concertos. Ensemble and intonation among the soloists and tutti are insecure, and the latter sound overbearing and are given to making startling crescendos here and there. One looks in vain in the Largo of the Concerto in B minor for four violins (Op. 3 No. 10) for any sense of poetry such as that which characterizes the solo oboe playing. Elsewhere ornamentation, as in the first movement of the Concerto in A minor for two violins (Op. 3 No. 8), is often gratuitous, serving no useful purpose at all. The slow movement of this concerto, though, is played with a good feeling for the music's poetic content.
The least familiar concerto in the programme is probably that for bassoon and strings in B flat (RV502). It is an attractive piece whose lyrical slow movement is anything but predictable in its melodic contour. The soloist, Meyrick Alexander gives a beautifully sustained account of it and the considerable charm of the music seems to have inspired the entire ensemble. Alexander's virtuoso playing of the outer movements overlooks hardly a detail and his performance throughout is a constant pleasure.
To sum up: in spite of the vacuous promotional nonsense in the booklet, there is plenty to enjoy in this fresh, enthusiastic playing. The recorded sound is excellent, and so is the stereo image. Recommended above all for the solo wind and cello contributions, but I also enjoyed other things too, if only in part.'