Vivaldi x2 – Double Concertos
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Antonio Vivaldi
Genre:
Orchestral
Label: Avie
Magazine Review Date: 09/2018
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 76
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: AV2392
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Double Concerto for 2 Oboes and Strings |
Antonio Vivaldi, Composer
Adrian Chandler, Director Antonio Vivaldi, Composer La Serenissima Mark Baigent, Oboe Rachel Chaplin, Oboe |
Double Concerto for 2 Horns and Strings |
Antonio Vivaldi, Composer
Adrian Chandler, Director Anneke Scott, Horn Antonio Vivaldi, Composer Jocelyn Lightfoot, Horn La Serenissima |
Double Concerto for Oboe, Bassoon and Strings |
Antonio Vivaldi, Composer
Adrian Chandler, Director Antonio Vivaldi, Composer La Serenissima Peter Whelen, Bassoon Rachel Chaplin, Oboe |
Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Strings |
Antonio Vivaldi, Composer
Adrian Chandler, Director, Violin Antonio Vivaldi, Composer La Serenissima Vladimir Waltham, Cello |
Concerto for Multiple Instruments |
Antonio Vivaldi, Composer
Adrian Chandler, Director, Violin Anneke Scott, Horn Antonio Vivaldi, Composer Jocelyn Lightfoot, Horn La Serenissima Mark Baigent, Oboe Rachel Chaplin, Oboe Vladimir Waltham, Cello |
Author: Charlotte Gardner
‘Vivaldi x2’ presents a medley of double concertos for hunting horns, oboes, bassoon, violin and cello, and it’s a feast of pleasures right from its RV539 kick-off: the most glittering of Vivaldi’s two double horn concertos, featuring some of the highest-tessitura horn-writing in the entire Baroque and headed up here by soloists Anneke Scott and Jocelyn Lightfoot with some fantastically nimble, neat, exuberant period horn playing.
That high tessitura also allows RV539 the relative novelty of a slow movement for which the horns can stick around. However, you’ll forget to miss the horns here in the other concerto, RV538, because what we get instead is another soloist to whom I could listen all day, cellist Vladimir Waltham; hear his gently grainy, luminous tone and his sighing trills, and fall in love. Plus, that tone acts as a perfect foil for the silkier sound coming from director Adrian Chandler’s violin in the violin-and-cello concertos RV546 and RV547.
Balance is always satisfying, too. Soloists-wise, we have horns distinct from but evenly weighted with the orchestra, bassoons further forwards than the bright-toned oboes, and the strings properly forwards so as to really appreciate their timbres. Continuo is also nicely judged; returning to RV538’s slow movement, I love the way they move from unobtrusive support one moment (and the harpsichord always remains delicately in the back of the sound) to the bass stepping up to meld and tonally blend with Waltham’s hung suspensions, and the theorbo using opportune moments to poke invitingly through. Bravissima, La Serenissima. Again.
Discover the world's largest classical music catalogue with Presto Music.
Gramophone Digital Club
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £8.75 / month
SubscribeGramophone Full Club
- Print Edition
- Digital Edition
- Digital Archive
- Reviews Database
- Full website access
From £11.00 / month
Subscribe
If you are a library, university or other organisation that would be interested in an institutional subscription to Gramophone please click here for further information.