MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
AmazonUK AmazonUS


Fire Beneath My Fingers
Antonio VIVALDI (1678-1741)
Concerto for recorder, 2 violins and bc in F 'La Tempesta di Mare' (after RV 98/570) [06:20]
Giuseppe TARTINI (1692-1770)
Concerto for violin, strings and bc in A (D 91) [17:14]
Antonio VIVALDI
Sonata for recorder, bassoon and bc in a minor (RV 86) [09:25]
Giuseppe SAMMARTINI (1695-1750)
Concerto for recorder, strings and bc in F [13:12]
Antonio VIVALDI
Concerto for recorder, violin, bassoon and bc in g minor (RV 106) [08:01]
Concerto for bassoon, strings and bc in B flat (RV 503) [11:56]
Musica Pacifica: (Judith Linsenberg (recorder); Elizabeth Blumenstock, Robert Mealy, Claire Jolivet (violin); Peter Bucknell (viola); William Skeen (cello); Michael McCraw (bassoon); Josh Lee (double-bass); Daniel Swenberg (theorbo, archlute, guitar); Charles Sherman (harpsichord, organ))
rec. January 2006, Ayrshire Ball Room, USA DDD
DORIAN DSL90704 [65:50] 
 
Experience Classicsonline


Nowhere in the booklet is the title of this disc explained. We are, however, given the reasoning behind the programme, which contain pieces strongly contrasting in character and scoring. The programme notes begin with the heading "Performers as composers". It is underlined that the composers represented here were first and foremost known as performers. From this one may conclude that most of the concertos they have composed reflect their own capabilities as performers.
 

This is certainly true in the case of Giuseppe Tartini, who was an internationally renowned violinist and much sought-after teacher of the violin. It is also true in regard to Sammartini, who worked in London in the last stage of his life. When he died in 1750 the press wrote that he had been "the finest performer on the hautboy in Europe". As in those days oboists usually also played the recorder, the concerto recorded here was very likely written for his own use. 

As far as Vivaldi is concerned things look a bit different. The two instruments which play the main role in his compositions on this disc are the recorder and the bassoon. As far as we know he played neither of them himself, and from this perspective they are out of step with the programme concept. In this case we have to look elsewhere to find the performers. Vivaldi was a virtuosic violinist, and most of his violin concertos will have been written for his own use. Other concertos were written for the girls of the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice, where worked as maestro di violini from 1703 and maestro de' concerti from 1709. Vivaldi must have had a thorough knowledge of the technical features of the instruments for which he was writing as well as of the capabilities of the girls of the Ospedale. Their fame spread throughout Europe and writers such as Charles Burney and Jean-Jacques Rousseau made a point of hearing them sing and play. The French magistrate and scholar Charles de Brosses (1709-1777) wrote in 1739 that "they sing like angels and play the violin, the flute, the organ, the oboe, the cello, the bassoon: in short, there is no instrument so large that it makes them afraid of it". The concertos on this disc therefore reflect the girls' virtuosity rather than that of Vivaldi. 

Two of the concertos by Vivaldi (the Concertos in F and in g minor) are not played exactly as they were written down. As Vivaldi's concertos are "records of performances rather than finished 'compositions'", as Kate van Orden writes in the booklet, the performers believe "it is not inappropriate to alter them for a new occasion and a new set of performers". This issue will always be a matter of debate. On the one hand, one shouldn't be so much in awe of the score that the performer is denied a certain amount of freedom. The idea of an 'Urtext' was not part of the approach of the baroque era to a score. On the other hand, this does not mean performers can do what they like. What is the freedom of the composer/performer isn't necessarily the freedom of today's interpreters – after all, there is much distance in time between then and now. For this reason I am a bit sceptical about the way the first item is treated here, which "relies on materials drawn from three different extant versions of the piece". 

This is the only questionable aspect of this recording. The concertos by Vivaldi are very fine pieces and are given splendid performances. The Concerto in F is played in a dramatic fashion, with strong dynamic accents. In the Sonata in A minor the trills in the recorder part are very nicely played, beginning slowly and then speeding up. It is a shame that the tone of the recorder is slightly unstable on long notes, but bothered me hardly at all. The second movement is played at high speed, but the articulation is nevertheless very sharp. The largo cantabile of this sonata is particularly beautiful, with a slow-moving recorder part over a very busy and virtuosic bassoon line. 

Tartini wrote more than a hundred violin concertos. Nearly all of them have been recorded by an Italian ensemble, but unfortunately these recordings do them scant justice, and they are often marred by insecure intonation. Therefore every recording of these brilliant concertos is very welcome, particularly when performed to such exalted standards as here by Elizabeth Blumenstock. The first movement is very virtuosic and played with technical assurance and panache by Ms Blumenstock. There are some sharp dynamic contrasts, and the slowing down in some passages increases the dramatic tension. The ensemble dares to play the adagio really slowly, which reveals the strong expressive nature of this movement. 

Sammartini's recorder concerto has been recorded a number of times before, but here it receives a very good interpretation. The first movement is played with fire. In the slow movement Judith Linsenberg plays some beautiful ornaments and a virtuosic cadenza towards the end. In the bassoon concerto Michael McCraw gets and takes the opportunity to display the qualities of his instrument as well as his own capabilities as performer. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this disc. It contains first-rate music in very theatrical and technically brilliant performances.

Johan van Veen


 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.