Vivaldi x2²
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Label: Signum
Cat No: SIGCD908
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Orchestral
Release Date: 2nd August 2024
Contents
Works
Concerto for 2 cellos in G minor, RV531Concerto for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, violin, cello and harpsichord in F major 'Il Proteo o sia il mondo al rovescio', RV572
Concerto for 2 flutes in C major, RV533
Concerto for 2 oboes in C major, RV534
Concerto for 2 violins, 2 oboes and 2 recorders in C major, RV557
Concerto for 2 violins in B flat major, RV524
Concerto for 2 violins in G major, RV516
Artists
La SerenissimaConductor
Adrian ChandlerWorks
Concerto for 2 cellos in G minor, RV531Concerto for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, violin, cello and harpsichord in F major 'Il Proteo o sia il mondo al rovescio', RV572
Concerto for 2 flutes in C major, RV533
Concerto for 2 oboes in C major, RV534
Concerto for 2 violins, 2 oboes and 2 recorders in C major, RV557
Concerto for 2 violins in B flat major, RV524
Concerto for 2 violins in G major, RV516
Artists
La SerenissimaConductor
Adrian ChandlerAbout
A follow-up to their album, ‘Vivaldi X2’, this new offering from baroque specialists La Serenissima combines further double concerti by Antonio Vivaldi with works for violin, cello, oboe, recorder and continuo.
The previous album received rave reviews including Recording of the Month from BBC Music Magazine.
These are some of Vivaldi’s most colourful and joyful works, and with director Adrian Chandler at the helm, listeners can look forward to further baroque excellence from this dynamic ensemble.
The previous album received rave reviews including Recording of the Month from BBC Music Magazine.
These are some of Vivaldi’s most colourful and joyful works, and with director Adrian Chandler at the helm, listeners can look forward to further baroque excellence from this dynamic ensemble.
Sound/Video
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1Concerto for 2 violins, 2 oboes, 2 recorders, strings & continuo in C major, RV557: 1. Allegro non molto
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2Concerto for 2 violins, 2 oboes, 2 recorders, strings & continuo in C major, RV557: 2. Largo
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3Concerto for 2 violins, 2 oboes, 2 recorders, strings & continuo in C major, RV557: 3. Allegro non molto
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4Concerto for 2 cellos, strings & continuo in G minor, RV531: 1. Allegro
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5Concerto for 2 cellos, strings & continuo in G minor, RV531: 2. Largo
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6Concerto for 2 flutes, strings & continuo in C major, RV533: 1. Allegro molto
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7Concerto for 2 flutes, strings & continuo in C major, RV533: 2. Largo
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8Concerto for 2 flutes, strings & continuo in C major, RV533: 3. Allegro
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9Concerto for 2 violins, strings & continuo in G major, RV516: 1. Allegro molto
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10Concerto for 2 violins, strings & continuo in G major, RV516: 2. Andante
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11Concerto for 2 violins, strings & continuo in G major, RV516: 3. Allegro
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12Concerto for 2 oboes, strings & continuo in C major, RV534: 1. Allegro
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13Concerto for 2 oboes, strings & continuo in C major, RV534: 2. Largo
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14Concerto for 2 oboes, strings & continuo in C major, RV534: 3. Allegro
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15Concerto for 2 violins, strings & continuo in B flat major, RV524: 1. Allegro
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16Concerto for 2 violins, strings & continuo in B flat major, RV524: 2. Andante
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17Concerto for 2 violins, strings & continuo in B flat major, RV524: . Allegro
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18Concerto ‘Il Proteo ò il Mondo al Roverscio’ for violin, cello, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, harpsichord, strings & continuo in F major, RV572: 1. Allegro
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19Concerto ‘Il Proteo ò il Mondo al Roverscio’ for violin, cello, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, harpsichord, strings & continuo in F major, RV572: 2. Largo
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20Concerto ‘Il Proteo ò il Mondo al Roverscio’ for violin, cello, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, harpsichord, strings & continuo in F major, RV572: 3. Allegro
Europadisc Review
Founded by violinist Adrian Chandler in 1994 while he was still a student, the baroque ensemble La Serenissima has become the go-to group for pulsating performances of Vivaldi and a host of his contemporaries. This coming season marks their 30th anniversary (it’s also Chandler’s 50th birthday year), and coinciding with it is the launch of their latest album on Signum Classics. In 2018 we hailed Serenissima’s album of double concertos, ‘Vivaldi x2’, as a ‘sumptuous disc’. Now, on ‘Vivaldi x2²’, they return with another seven double concertos from the Red Priest, who wrote more than 50 such pieces for various instrumental combinations, and they’re just as absorbing as those on the earlier collection.
Most of the works here are for ‘matching pairs’ of soloists – two violins, two flutes, two oboes, and so on. One of the most beguiling is the Concerto in C major for two flutes, strings and continuo, RV533. Surprisingly, given the availability of woodwind players at the Ospedale della Pietà which was the centre of Vivaldi’s activity for much of his career, this is his only work for this combination. With flautists Katy Bircher and Flavia Hirte the opening movement burbles into life like a fast-flowing mountain stream, thrumming continuo accompanying them in the solo passages. The central Largo, with a pizzicato bass and organ continuo, is a dreamy affair, the flutes often playing in harmonious thirds. The closing Allegro has a bustling ritornello with the sort of middle textures that Chandler and his colleagues obviously relish, while the solo sections chirrup along merrily, with lively, brilliantly executed articulation.
The violin was, of course, Vivaldi’s own instrument as well as being Chandler’s, and this album includes two such works, with Chandler partnered by Oliver Cave. The Concerto in G major, RV516, dates from the late 1720s or early 1730s, and is set in motion with a bullish opening tutti before putting the two soloists through their paces with fast string-crossing (their tone is sufficiently contrasted to distinguish who’s playing what in the busy interplay). A central Andante has a chamber-like texture, the soloists sometimes alternating, at others joined in harness, while the concluding Allegro is marvellously punchy. The Concerto in B flat major, RV524, is a somewhat later work (probably from the late 1730s), and is infused with the grace of the fashionable galant style, with cleaner textures. Even here, however, Chandler and his colleagues can barely suppress their impishly energetic impulses, least of all in the rhythmically incisive third movement, which includes some of the work’s most virtuosic flashes.
The Concerto in C major for two oboes, RV534, opens with a head-motif similar to that of the ‘Laudamus te’ from Vivaldi’s famous D major Gloria, and is unusual for abandoning the usual ritornello form in favour of exchanges between the soloists (Rachel Chaplin and Mark Baigent) and tutti. The central Largo is an exquisitely mournful affair, the soloists in plangent thirds against a bassetto accompaniment of unison violins, and making the burst of energy that comes with the closing Allegro all the more effective.
Our favourite among these ‘matching pair’ concertos, however, is the Concerto in G minor for two cellos: the pairing of two low-tessitura string instruments, coupled with La Serenissima’s trademark vitality, ensures a wonderfully rich, nutty texture, and soloists Vladimir Waltham and Carina Drury revel in the fiery, closely-spaced concertante writing. The Largo slow movement combines soulful eloquence with searing expressiveness, looking forward to the sort of songful nature that would later attract such composers as Dvořák and Elgar to the instrument. The concluding Allegro has a driving momentum that derives from the syncopations of its opening ritornello, and again it’s the way that Waltham and Drury dig into the solo writing that makes this performance so special.
Framing these five works are two concertos for multiple pairs of soloists. The C major Concerto, RV557, for two violins and two oboes (the latter exchanging their instruments for recorders in the slow movement) makes a striking opener. Its opening theme has a fugal flavour more usually heard in closing movements, but this is no academic exercise and it soon bursts into chattering life even at the relatively ceremonious main tempo (like all the speeds on this album, judged to perfection by Chandler). The recorders (played by Baigent and Bircher) lend a languorous air to the slow movement (the violins have a rest here), while the richly-textured third movement (marked Allegro non molto) has a siciliano-like swing to it.
Closing the disc is a lavishly-scored Concerto in F major, which seems to have started life as a concerto for violin and cello, before Vivaldi added pairs of flutes, oboes and solo harpsichord to double the solo lines. This lends the work a uniquely opulent and bright timbre, the opening Allegro further enriched by viola drones, all captured with arresting immediacy by the Signum team. The string-and-double-reeds plus harpsichord doublings impart a strange timbre, most unlike the standard High Baroque sound one has come to expect from the composer, and the third movement opens with a passage for just the tutti strings playing in bare octaves. These bizarre sonics are no doubt related to the work’s title, Il Proteo ò il Mondo al Roverscio (‘Proteus or the World turned Upside-Down’), and anticipate wilder elements of the Sturm und Drang music of CPE Bach and Joseph Haydn. Coming at the end of another fascinating, splendidly animated album, it has the listener eagerly wanting more: let’s hope ‘Vivaldi x2³’ is on the horizon!
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