Eight Seasons
Antonio VIVALDI (1678-1741) Le Quattro Stagioni (The Four
Seasons) [40:35]
Astor PIAZZOLLA (1921-1992) Las Cuatros Estaciones Porteñas
[27:59]
Order: Vivaldi Spring, Piazzolla Summer, Vivaldi Summer, Piazzolla Autumn,
Vivaldi Autumn, Piazzolla Winter, Vivaldi Winter, Piazzolla Spring
Jonathan Morton (violin)/Scottish Ensemble
rec. live, 23 April 2010, The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Scotland
SIGNUM SIGCD231 [68:34] 
It’s become a popular concert offering to present Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
in alternation with Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. This
disc pretty accurately reflects that concert experience, recorded as it was
during a live performance on 23 April 2010. The Scottish Ensemble and violinist
Jonathan Morton use the live setting to take risks and put their own stamp
on the music, so this is an individual account for some tastes but not others.
The musicians are a small and dedicated band. The Scottish Ensemble comprises
twelve string players, some of whom appear rather blurrily on the album’s
cover, as well as solo harpsichordist and lutenist. The lute is permitted
to take over for an interesting continuo part in some of the Vivaldi, and
indeed (very creatively) at the end of one of the Piazzolla works. The band’s
small size lends itself to an improvisatory playing style in the Vivaldi —
lines are echoed in places like the first movement of Spring, and in spots
where Vivaldi wrote in a repeated melody the second iteration will be very
different - sometimes wonderfully soft. Notes and chords tend to be ‘clipped’
but some phrases end with a sudden relaxation, like the musicians are breathing
out.
Jonathan Morton is an intermittently sympathetic soloist, with a somewhat
pinched tone in the Vivaldi and occasional ornamental additions of his own,
some of them successful. He does not exceed Gidon Kremer’s effort in this
coupling on Nonesuch, nor does he match Tianwa Yang’s boiling passion in her
Piazzolla album on Naxos. To some extent, though, those comparisons might
be unfair; this is a live performance, recorded in one take, and at any rate
no Four Seasons of Buenos Aires can really be compared to Yang’s, with
its breathtaking phrasing, luxurious portamenti, and a passionate tone which
burns through the notes like liquid fire. Morton reminded me that mere mortals
play this music too, and with zest too, although in ‘Otoño porteño’ he is
upstaged by a gloriously lyrical cello solo from Alison Lawrance.
I’m not sold on this as my ‘Eight Seasons’ of choice, as you may have gathered;
the Scottish Ensemble’s way with Vivaldi can be terse, and although they are
really on point in the Piazzolla - the harshness at the beginning of ‘Otoño’
is impressive, and the fugue at the beginning of ‘Primavera’ is electrifying
- the competition is just too stiff. I can’t tear myself away from Tianwa
Yang’s super-emotive solo work here. But that’s my taste; some will find this
brew just right, so try some samples and if the live energy and ensemble appeal
to you, give it a go.
Brian Reinhart
Not my taste, but that’s not their fault; the excitement of live performance.