This thoughtfully and attractively devised programme by Rinaldo Alessandrini and Concerto Italiano breaks up a sequence of five well contrasted concertos with two of Vivaldi’s chamber cantatas. The two vocal pieces are both for alto with divided violins, viola and continuo; and their subject matter, dealt with in the customary pattern of two alternating recitatives and arias, concerns the efficacy of Cupid’s arrows on those incredibly susceptible denizens of Arcadia. Sara Mingardo is a name new to me but she is a singer who enlivens this music at every turn. Her voice is warm in tone, evenly projected and, in a pastoral setting where the cruel pangs of love are felt in almost every bar, appropriately anguished. She would make a fine Judith in the title-role of Vivaldi’s oratorio, Juditha Triumphans. The chamber cantatas, though now receiving more attention from performers than formerly, are still among Vivaldi’s better kept secrets and readers are likely to find much that satisfies heart and mind alike. The recitatives of Cessate, omai cessate are vividly expressive of amorous suffering while the first aria of Amor, hai vinto has a contrapuntal strength which it shares with the opening movement of the E minor Concerto for ripieno strings (RV134), which occurs later on the disc.
Of the five concertos, which form the backbone of the disc, three are concerti a quattro, or strings without soloist, the fourth is a cello concerto, and the fifth a violin concerto from Vivaldi’s second published concerto opus, La stravaganza. Cellist Luigi Piovano and violinist Francesca Vicari, who also leads Concerto Italiano, are fluently stylish, technically assured soloists. Like Alessandrini and his ensemble, they bring plenty of graceful gesture and effective articulation to the music. Sometimes, as in the Concerto in C major (RV117), which also functions as the opening sinfonia to Vivaldi’s serenata, La Senna festeggiante, I felt the gestures a little overstated, but it is a very small matter in the presence of so much else that is enlightened and warmly communicative. The recital, one of the most satisfying of Vivaldi’s music that I have heard for a while, both on account of interpretation and for the window it opens on to the composer’s widely ranging expressive vocabulary, concludes with the evergreen Alla rustica (RV151), to whose simple folk-music-orientated vigour my senses are always responsive. A fine release.'