Vivaldi Concertos RV 331, 190, 325, 217, 303

Back in 2006, DG Archiv shamefully published an album simply titled “Vivaldi: Concerti” by the Venice Baroque Orchestra under Andrea Marcon, featuring DG artist and violinist Giuliano Carmignola.

Archiv as a label, at least in the 1980s when I discovered them, had some class and authority. They were publishing some really good artists (MAK, English Concert) and good music. You can’t blame a company for marketing a product, but come on… the packing does no good in letting folks know anything useful about the music. “Why these concertos?”

I’m one of the suckers that bought this up. Must have a been a slow month for Vivaldi.

VBO is one of those period orchestras that plays with at least a few people to a part: 4/4/2/2/1/1/1, plenty rich in continuo, and at a so-called Venetian pitch, 440 Hz. They never impress me; it’s not that they are bad, but let’s be honest: they’re used/abused as a backup band. They play all the right notes, but the musical direction lacks any outstanding feature. That’s not necessarily bad, just safe.

Just let it be known, just because they’re Italians doesn’t mean they make the same kind of impact as IGA (il Giardino Armonico) or Europa Galante.

Carmignola’s contribution here isn’t bad, but he still remains my NJFV (Not John’s Favorite Violinist), however hard he tries. What really rubbed me foully wasn’t the music at all, but again the marketers. They hired the infamous Olivier Fourés to write the liner notes, which granted are translated, but are so chock full of modifiers and $25 words that the music cannot compete.

So vast a corpus represents the most monumental collection of violin works in the whole history of music…

Really? He later tells us that so many of Vivaldi’s works aren’t heard today; even later, he admits that the music on this record hasn’t even been recorded before. That has some shock value, for sure, but let’s be honest. What are the reasons these works haven’t been recorded before, sir? Is it they were just found? Or is it because they are simply too difficult to play? (Or maybe, just maybe, they aren’t as strong as the hundreds of others that have been recorded–just maybe.)

Here’s another money quote:

The diversity of the writing is little short of phenomenal: RV 217 begins with a fugato, RV 325 exploits the device of echo effects…

Phenomenal trash, indeed. RV 217 is certainly not one of Vivaldi’s strongest works; it comes across to my ears in what I might term Vivaldi’s modern style, which wasn’t his strongest period. The writing is lighter, but the main themes are anemic against the mostly high-pitched solo passages. Starting with a theme, a so-called “fugato” isn’t that unusual in Vivaldi, and I’d hardly label it as diverse. Echo effects? They come a dime a dozen in baroque music, Vivaldi included.

After reading all the liner notes, you feel as if you have stumbled upon some of the world’s most fascinating musical treasures. Treasures or not, the playing doesn’t match the hype either. The aforementioned RV 217’s slow movement, for instance, gives space for highlighting affect from the orchestra, but instead, the poor saps have to play almost academically, to allow “room” for affect from soloist Carmignola. His playing, in turn, comes across as sappy, despite the technical achievement and a nice sound.

While the album highlights Vivaldi’s lesser known concerti, the music isn’t as consistently bad as my mood might portray. But every piece, and within the collection, every movement, isn’t as extraordinary and monumental as the DG marketers might pay Mr. Fourés have you believe.

Despite playing on historical instruments, the DG Archiv folks ought to have been more honest with us. Let the VBO breathe somewhat; let natural balance prevail (instead of the ultra-close miking of Mr. Carmignola), and for goodness sake, lay off the honey when providing liner notes.

There’s an old adage that Vivaldi didn’t write hundreds of concertos. He instead wrote one: and simply arranged it multiple times. That’s both unfair to Vivaldi and to musical history. But Vivaldi’s formulaic writing takes on reference when Fourés quoted Vivaldi as saying, and I’m paraphrasing here, “I can write concertos faster than copyists can copy them out.” Indeed. RV 303 is such an example. The solo writing is nice, but the overall form of the work does take on the stench of something re-worked. It’s a method that might have worked when touting your wares in a new city traveling, but here, it’s almost an embarrassment.

The only way I can think any audience would have cared for RV 303 was that the themes were hum-worthy, lifted almost verbatim from one of Vivaldi’s dramatic productions. While Carmingnola and friends wager that we might simply notice the stronger solo writing and ignore the weak themes, I can’t help but loathe the slow movements, which are all too often played too slowly and milked inside the microphone, leaving behind a saccharine sweet aftertaste.

For something new as background music, knock yourself out. For a Vivaldi enthusiast, you won’t miss much here.

Brandenburg Concerti DVD

Several years ago I picked up a DVD of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra performing Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, and if you search on YouTube, you’ll find some industrious person has ripped this DVD and posted the performances for all to see.

The ethics on that aside…

The performances are on original instruments and are, for the most part, very polished. Not terribly much creativity went into the video portion of the production, however. But I’ll get to that.

The performances are for the most part quick-tempoed, but without a lot of flexibility in tempo. The playing is clean, but the recording leaves a lot of detail out (for instance, you look at some players and you could swear you don’t hear a peep out of them!). The recording might have been better with closer miking. While the performances are good, they leave a little out in terms of spontaneity. The most interesting person to watch is von der Goltz, the leader, who takes the lead in Concertos 4 and 5.

The video is shot inside a large ballroom, and while the camera work does a lot to show us both close-ups and wide-angle shots, the performers look quite uninterested. And that leads to a flat video. The horn players look bored. Karl Kaiser (flute) hardly ever looks at von der Goltz. While the video was likely shot in the last days of 1999, in a more contemporary setting, I would have liked to have seen them wear more casual clothes, and perhaps even be interviewed about the works. When videos of classical music are made, we shouldn’t ignore the rich medium of video… either capture a live performance with an audience, or else help us learn about the music with a story: either the music’s history, or the challenges of performing the music.

In the end, there are better recordings of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti available. I didn’t have one by the FBO, so I justified buying the DVD. There aren’t terribly many available on period instruments, so… you may want to check out the YouTube versions to see if there’s value in it for you. I’ve greatly admired the playing of the FBO and FBO consort in the past, and here they don’t necessarily disappoint. But with the media of video and such familiar works, I expected a little more daring or visual interest. Not every DVD needs to go to the lengths of the overly dramatic presentations by Il Giardino Armonico in their excellent DVDs, but as said, something here more could have been said musically, if not visually.

Keith Jarrett: Art of Improvisation

I recently borrowed a DVD entitled “Keith Jarrett: Art of Improvisation.” It was from 2005, and an overview of the pianist’s own musical history. It included a lot of musical performances, but was arranged like a loose documentary, interviewing Jarrett himself, his trio consort, and even relatives.

The documentary was a good background into Keith, including his own personal history, and an overview of his own musical accomplishments. He made quite a distinction between playing jazz, or in his solo concerts, where the music “comes through him,” versus playing classical music, a far less strenuous process. While the question isn’t asked directly, they do allude to his “singing” and noisemaking in jazz vs. his classical performances. He explained this the same way, as the music “going through you,” and the noises simply a side effect of the process.

Listening to his recording now of his Handel Suites on piano, they sound flat yet clean and steady (rhythmically). I found his WTC 1 by Bach to be similar, although the piano in this recording is a couple notches better. Someone with such genius ought to be able to say more through the baroque masters than he does. But then again, maybe that’s his point.

So, while his baroque forays aren’t my favorite recordings, and his own orchestral content I like even less, I’m nevertheless now better educated about the man behind his incredible solo concerts and the better-than-none standards trio.

Imaginarium records Vivaldi Sonatas

La Follia is the titular name for the 2010 “Vivaldi Power” CD released by Imaginarium (Enrico Onofri, Alessandro Tampieri, Alessandro Palmeri, Margret Köll, and Riccardo Doni) featuring various string sonatas by Antonio Vivaldi on DHM/Sony.

The hour of music explores mostly works from Vivaldi’s first two opuses, including the famous La Follia trio sonata, not to mention RV 28, a work in G minor that was believed to have been written for the Dresden-based violinist, Pisendel.

These works aren’t entirely new to me, having access to some by other performers. In fact, the famous La Follia sonata was performed earlier by Onofri’s other ensemble, Il Giardino Armonico, under the directorship of Giovanni Antonini.

Onofri’s other releases have been stunning, to say the least. Onfori remains to my ears and eyes one of the most affective players I ever witnessed live. The sound on this recording is its worst attribute. The instruments all take on a silvery, metallic sheen, despite the performer’s use of historic instruments. It’s the recording venue that lends the sound. It’s not entirely off-putting. The use of harp in the continuo and a crisp cembalo also help portray the music in its shimmery, metallic presentation. Nevertheless, I get the sense with listening both in the car and with good-quality headphones that the balance wasn’t quite right for this recording… with the violin and a single continuo instrument, the sound is thin, and combined with a fuller complement of instrumentation, the violin doesn’t always rise to the top of the texture.

Having heard some of these works before, I appreciate Onofri & Co.’s interpretations. They aren’t always superior, but they often add another dimension to the music, a freshness if you will. It can be found in the dynamic treatment of a single note or an entire passage, it might also be found in some creative ornamentation. Onofri’s signature schtick is on tap here, that very slow vibrato on long notes that simple makes the music sing in that irresistible way, adding a richness where there ought to be nothing but a single thin note.

Onofri doesn’t play with the music quite as hard as Fabio Biondi might, for the sake of being different. But his new interpretation of RV 63 (La Follia) is something curious. On a recording level, I prefer the earlier 1990s recording by IGA. For the interpretation, again IGA wins. But there is still merit on this reading, somehow more transparent, sparkling, and in many ways, far more elegant. If the earlier reading on Teldec was rustic and athletic, this one is fancy and lighter. There is still drama in this version, but from different players (in one case, a chromatic swipe across the harp wakes you up plenty well).

I of course recommend this new recording, but I also recognize that it is not as strong a release as Onofri’s earlier Voce nel Violino with the same ensemble. And after listening several times, I wonder what I’d be saying if the qualities of the recording–and not the performances–had been improved. My most enjoyable listening was via headphones, where you can hear the textual ramblings of the harp and other facets of intricate fast notes. It is an attractive release, even more so if your collection currently doesn’t include other offerings from Vivaldi’s opp. 1 & 2.