Why have I had
this CD so long without committing my final thoughts on
it? First of all, I got bogged down by the question ‘What
exactly do we mean by Vivaldi’s ‘complete’ recorder concertos?’ Skip
the next paragraph if you don’t want to give yourself a
headache.
The issue is not
nearly as cut and dried as CPO would have us believe. Hyperion
offer the same six concertos (RV441-5 and RV108) on CDH55016
(Peter Holtslag/Parley of Instruments/Peter Holman) and
Naxos also offer a collection entitled
Complete Recorder
Concertos with RV441-5, plus RV95 (8.553829 – see
review),
but Naxos also have a completely different collection on
a CD entitled
Recorder Concertos (8.557215): RV
103, 92, 105, 94, 108, 87, and 101 (see
appreciative reviews of 8.557215 by
Adam
Binks and
Glyn
Pursglove). Harmonia Mundi offer a budget-price
2-CD set of
Flute and Recorder Concertos (HMX290
7340.41) on which RV104 (
La Notte) and RV433 (
La
Tempesta di Mare) plus RV 434 and 435 are included
as recorder concertos as well as RV441, 443 and 444 in
common with this CPO recording.
I could also have
got bogged down in the issue of exactly what a
flautino was,
the designated instrument for RV443-5, but I’m going to
avoid that particular Slough of Despond. I’ll simply say
that these concertos sound well on the recorder.
Then there’s the
quality of the music. I love Vivaldi and vehemently reject
the old chestnut that he composed the same concerto hundreds
of times, but I have to admit that 67 minutes of recorder
concertos do tend towards the monotonous; even though three
different solo instruments are employed here and concertos
for
flautino and alto recorder alternate, there
isn’t much variety. This is all attractive music but,
as one reviewer of the Hyperion CD wrote when it was first
issued, these concertos are hardly Vivaldi’s most absorbing
works – it’s hardly surprising that Harmonia Mundi have ‘borrowed’ two
very striking flute concertos,
La Notte and
la
Tempesta di Mare for the recorder component of their
2-CD set.
I came back to
this CPO recording immediately after hearing Linn CKD151
on which the various members of the Orchestra of the Age
of Enlightenment perform eight Vivaldi concertos for different
soloists or combinations of soloists. The performances
on CPO are certainly worthy to be mentioned alongside that
superb Linn CD, with Michael Schneider’s solo playing just
as winning as that of Lisa Beznosiuk on Linn in the other
La
Notte concerto, RV439. With Petra Müllejans as first
violin, the support of the Cappella Academica, Frankfurt,
could hardly be bettered and the CPO recording is also
very good.
I must, however,
honestly report the much greater power of a varied collection
such as that on Linn to hold my attention – and there is
plenty of music from the flute-recorder family on that
CD if that’s what you want: the Concerto in d for 2 recorders,
2 oboes, bassoon and 2 violins (RV566), the Chamber Concerto
in g for flute, oboe, bassoon, violin and continuo (RV107)
and the performance of
La Notte (RV439) which I’ve
already mentioned. Full marks, too, to Linn for a Vivaldi
CD with a striking cover that doesn’t include a Canaletto
painting.
My personal favourite
among the concertos on the CPO disc, the charming Concerto
for alto recorder, RV442 (tracks 10-12), does make me sit
up and take notice, as does the slow movement of RV443
(track2). Like everything here, these are well performed
and recorded; they would have stood out even in the company
of a mixed programme like that on Linn, which is where
I’d have preferred to hear them. Tempi throughout both
the CPO and Linn CDs are lively but never breakneck, as
some recent performances of Vivaldi and his contemporaries
by Italian ensembles have been.
I haven’t heard
the Naxos or Hyperion Helios CDs but they have both received
very favourable reviews: See links to MusicWeb review
of the Naxos CD above. The Naxos CD omits RV86 but includes
RV95 in compensation and is available for less than half
the price of the CPO, as also is the Hyperion. The latter
programme is shorter by about six minutes than either the
Naxos or CPO but comes with a Hyperion booklet which includes
the usual first-class notes – check it out on the Hyperion
website – and varies the programme somewhat by employing
a chamber organ as continuo in some of the concertos. If
you just want a single CD of these concertos on period
instruments, this Helios would seem to be your best bet.
The Harmonia Mundi
set, too, is attractive, offering both recorder and flute
concertos on two CDs for the price of the single CPO disc. Janet
See’s versions of the Flute concertos RV427-9, 436, 438,
440 and 533 with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra/Nicholas
McGegan have been a valued part of my collection since
they were first issued in 1988 on HMU90 5193, so I can
at least confirm the excellence of half of this set. I
have no reason to think less well of the second CD on which
Marion Verbruggen performs with the same orchestra and
conductor; I’ve already endorsed her performance of RV95
on another, very inexpensive, Harmonia Mundi Classical
Express CD (Seven Chamber Concertos, HCX395 7046 – see
review).
Now, perhaps,
my reasons for taking so long to finalise this review become
apparent. There’s absolutely nothing of any importance
that I can find to say in criticism of the present CPO
performances and recording, yet I find myself unable to
recommend the CD wholeheartedly when there are such inexpensive
alternatives and when I think that most listeners would
really prefer the kind of mixed Vivaldi programme to be
found on the excellent Linn and Harmonia Mundi Classical
Express CDs to which I’ve referred.
While I’m about
it, let me reiterate my recommendation of another Linn
recording of Vivaldi, mentioned in my
March
2009 Download Roundup (
Elvira, Cantatas and Sonatas,
CKD281 – see Robert Hugill’s
review).
Brian Wilson
Cappella
Academica Frankfurt/Michael Schneider (recorder and director) 
