Enrico Onofri believes that Vivaldi’s music has long been misunderstood “because of its easily enjoyable idiom”. He writes that “When subjected to a profound, subtle and precise reading of the rhetorical formulas that compose them, [Vivaldi’s] concertos stand revealed as extremely impassioned works, by turns gently melancholic, impetuous, ironic, dramatic, caricatural, introspective, voluptuous, violent, tender, graceful.” All these characteristics are depicted in Onofri’s intensely rhetorical playing. Occasionally he likes to introduce mischievous (perhaps even anarchic) elements into Academia Montis Regalis’s performances, as if to insist that we must not regard this music as mere fashionable wallpaper music. The relentlessly tempestuous Concerto RV234, L’inquietudine, is not stuff that corporations will use for holding callers on the telephone.

Onofri’s rapid flourishes in the extensive cadenza that concludes the Grosso Mogul Concerto, RV208, are not only phenomenal from a technical point of view but delivered in such a convincing way that every single note seems to matter. Amid the thwacks and snaps in fast tuttis one wonders if elegance might be an authentic Vivaldian characteristic in danger of becoming overlooked, although there is much more to these performances than shock tactics. Among the finest elements of this kaleidoscopic disc are the quieter slower movements: eloquence, grief, tranquillity and desire all seem to be worn on Onofri’s sleeve. The Adagio in Concerto RV270, Il riposo, is breathtakingly beautiful; La caccia is unusually provocative, rewarding and frequently amazing. Academia Montis Regalis present Vivaldi’s concertos as totally compelling and meaningful music that demands full attention and respect.