Which composer wrote 220 violin concertos, the Famous Four of which have been recorded about as many times (over two dozen versions on CD alone) as all the other put together? If you don't know, keep it a secret. Nothing in the dossiers of Viktoria Mullova and Claudio Abbado raised expectations of this venture outside their established territories as the tray slid smoothly into the player, once the laser got to work, the agreeable surprise began.
Mullova, accustomed to digging in her heels (her own and that of her bow) in romantic 'confrontations' with large forces, adjusts admirably: the squeaky-cleanness of her technique is virtually to be taken for granted, but her tonally fine-drawn lines, tightly disciplined vibrato and sensitivity to the scale of this music were unexpected delights. There is virtuosity and bravura in plenty, not least in the needle-sharp spiccatos, but it is in the slow movements that Mullova is especially impressive, her lines often attentuated to the barest whisper yet pure in sound. Equal praise is due to Abbado for his splendid attention to detail and to the COE for their alert response to his every demand, only at maximum volume do the orchestral strings sound overweighted. With the benefit of good balancing, the harpsichordist is always as audible as befits his role, in the second movement of ''Autumn'' his buff-stopped commentary is not confined to the customary arpeggios.
The addition of RV577 is welcome, not merely as an extension of the playing time (The Four Seasons alone make a meagrely filled CD) but because there is no other version of it in the present catalogue (CD or LP). It is one of the two concertos Vivaldi wrote for the Dresden orchestra, or, more particularly, for their large wind department, a jolly affair of the 'Noah's Ark' kind with double woodwind but only one violin soloist, and it is exhilaratingly played—the oboe soloist in the Largo non molto is delightfully fluid. This outstandingly recorded disc now heads my list of recommended 'middle-of-the-road' versions of that Famous Four.'