Baroque
Francesco GEMINIANI (1687–1762)
Concerto grosso in D minor, H143 ‘La Folia’ after Arcangelo Corelli’s
Violin Sonata Op 5, No 12 [11:30]
Antonio VIVALDI (1678–1741)
Violin Concerto in D, RV211 [14:11]
Violin Concerto in E-flat, RV257 [10:55]
Violin Concerto in B minor, RV386 [11:53]
Violin Concerto in B-flat, RV583: II. Andante [3:55]
Nicola Benedetti (Gariel Stradivarius violin, 1717)
Benedetti Baroque Orchestra
rec. Battersea Arts Centre, London, 17–20 December 2020
Reviewed as downloaded from press preview.
DECCA 4851891
[52:24]
Is this as much a surprise as I think, or have I missed something? Here’s
Nicola Benedetti, not especially noted for playing baroque repertoire on a
baroque violin and leading an ensemble, bearing her name, of distinguished
baroque performers. She made an album entitled Italia a decade
ago, music by Vivaldi, Tartini and Veracini, but that was with a
modern-instrument ensemble, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, albeit that she
used a baroque bow. Dominy Clements made that a Recording of the Month
(4764342 –
review). Does her foray into the period-instrument world work?
The performers bring the house down with the opening
concerto, Geminiani’s
virtuoso adaptation of Corelli’s ‘La Folia’ sonata, part of his collection
of concerti grossi adaptations of the master’s own Op.5 set. It certainly
takes off very powerfully in this new recording. I did wonder if it wasn’t
a little too virtuosic, but that’s really the point of these Geminiani
concertos, designed for the composer to make a mark as a violinist; not for
nothing did Tartini describe him as furibondo. This music, based
on the supposedly Spanish melody ‘La Folia’, or ‘Les folies d’Espagne’,
which most baroque composers worth their salt had a go at, is well suited
to fast and furious interpretation.
In fact, comparison reveals that Benedetti and her orchestra are not out to
break the speed record in this work. Established Geminiani performers auch
as
the Purcell Quartet and Purcell Band actually bring it off noticeably
faster (Hyperion Helios CDH55234, mid-price CD –
review
– or budget-price download from
Hyperion), while Ensemble 415 with Chiara Banchini take only slightly longer (Outhere
Rewind REW521, mid-price). My favourite set of the complete Geminiani
concertos after Corelli, from the Academy of Ancient Music and Andrew
Manze, formerly on 2 CDs, is now download only (Harmonia Mundi
HMU907261.62). They take around the same time for ‘La Folia’ as Benedetti
and her team, and the playing is just as virtuosic, but just a little less
inclined to be over-emphatic – that’s at least partly due to the recording
placing the ensemble further back than the new Decca.
Manze leaves us with all guns blazing just as intensely as Benedetti, but
he warms up to the crescendo more gradually where the new
recording blazes from the start. If Benedetti tempts you to go for the
whole set, there’s no better recording than the Harmonia Mundi; you should
be able to find it in lossless sound for around £15. After that, you might
wish to try, for example, his Op.3 concertos, recorded by Christopher
Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music on a mid-price Decca L’Oiseau Lyre
reissue –
review. Nothing else is quite as much an earworm as ‘La Folia’, but it’s all a
very attractive reminder that Geminiani was once spoken of alongside
Corelli and Handel.
The three-and-a-bit Vivaldi concertos (why not the whole of RV583?) also
receive forceful performances. It’s no surprise to find Benedetti writing
in the notes that it was Andrea Marcon that tempted her into the world of
the baroque concerto. His own recordings with the Venice Baroque Orchestra
are also noted for their colour, variety and intensity.
Marcon recorded RV211 with Giuliano Carmignola as soloist on Sony SK51352,
part of a programme occupied mostly by the Four Seasons. Mercifully,
Benedetti has chosen to launch into Vivaldi with much less well-known fare
than the Four Seasons, having included ‘Summer’ on the Italia
album. It’s unfair to compare her first period-instrument recording with
the more established Carmignola and Marcon, though that album, too,
was comparatively early (recorded in or around 2000), but their performance
of this concerto is a much more subtle and varied affair, with intensity
blended with less fervent moments. I listened to it as streamed in 16-bit
sound, so like for like with the new Decca, and the more distant placement
of the performers adds to my preference for the Sony – if only one didn’t
have to have it with yet another recording of The Four Seasons.
That’s possible to avoid if you choose La Serenissima and Adrian Chandler on their
album The French Connection, a miscellaneous programme of
concertos for violin, flute and bassoon, rounded off by a slightly more
staid but varied and very enjoyable performance of RV211 (AV2178 –
review).
The other two concertos on the new recording receive rather more sensitive
treatment. RV257 recently featured on a Pentatone recording of Vivaldi
violin concertos transcribed for flute solo, from Bolette Roed (recorders)
and Arte dei Suonatori (PTC5186875). That comes with yet another Four
Seasons, albeit arranged and interwoven with other concertos season by
season. As I wrote in my
recent survey of Baroque music, these arrangements work very well indeed; after all, Vivaldi himself
often specified the violin or oboe as alternative solo instruments, and
from the oboe to another wind instrument is no great distance. The
performances are first-rate, from both Bolette Roed and Arte dei Suonatori;
the whole is very enjoyable, and not just as a novelty one-off. Given that
Vivaldi on the recorder is inevitably going to sound gentler, though by no
means feeble, I nevertheless thought Benedetti’s Vivaldi much more amenable
in this concerto than in her recording of RV211.
RV386, another late concerto, is again Carmignola territory; his is the
only other recording that I can find, available on a single album (Sony
SK87733) or on a 3½-hour set (G010001402412D) or on a 7½-hour ‘complete’ alternative
(88875051512), all download only. The single download is unduly expensive,
so there’s a good case for obtaining one of the larger sets – much less
expensive pro rata, though none include a booklet. In RV386, too, while the
Sony recording offers a valuable set of these late works, Benedetti is more
in tune with the sheer musicality of the music than with the demonstration
of virtuosity. For one thing, I listened at a lower volume setting, and
that helped to make Benedetti’s performances more amenable.
The supporting team is crammed with the names of accomplished baroque
musicians, and the recording, if a little too forward for my liking, is
otherwise good.
It’s a little disappointing for Decca to be offering a full-price new
release with less than an hour’s music, when there’s plenty more Vivaldi
that could have filled it. Having treated us to a rip-roaring Geminiani ‘La
Folia’ at the outset, they could have rounded off the programme with
Vivaldi’s own variations on that theme, RV63, though there are several fine
recordings of that (Purcell Quartet, Hyperion Helios CDH55231, Archive CD
or budget-price download from
Hyperion)
or Apollo’s Fire (Avie AV2211 –
review).
Overall, while this is an impressive first album for Nicola Benedetti’s new
baroque persona, especially if you like your baroque concertos to sound
very intense, I have to admit that I was relieved to turn to the
performances by Andrew Manze in Geminiani and from Carmignola with Marcon
and Adrian Chandler in Vivaldi for even greater insight into this music. RV257
and RV386 and the andante second movement from RV583 which rounds
off the new programme do provide a degree more tranquillity, but that andante is lighter still as performed by Carmignola and Marcon,
who offer the complete concerto (Concerto Veneziano, DG Archiv
E4748952, download only).
Booklets for such releases have tended to become something of a personality
cult in recent years, but, while there are plenty of photographs of Nicola
Benedetti, she also contributes some worthwhile notes. It’s illuminating
that she writes of ‘plunging’ or ‘jumping into’ the music. She is certainly
not offering the ‘light fare’ that she believes many people assume the
baroque repertoire to consist of.
Mostly intense performances, then, that will find many admirers, but
alternative recordings offer greater variety.
Brian Wilson
Benedetti Baroque Orchestra:
Kati Debretzeni, Jane Gordon (violin I)
Matthew Truscott, Michael Gurevich (violin I)
Louise Hogan, Rebecca Jones (viola)
Jonathan Byers, Sarah Macmahon (cello)
Nikita Naumov (double bass)
Elizabeth Kenny (lute)
Steven Devine (harpsichord)
