Album

The Vivaldian violin concerto seems such a classically simple thing with its chunky tutti sharply differentiated from spectacular solos. And Vivaldi wrote so fluently, wrote so many hundreds of works, that it's easy to assume he had solid preexisting models into which he needed only to pour his own inspiration. Listeners who have investigated the music of Torelli, Albinoni, and Corelli a bit know that it's not so simple. And now this disc makes manifest the full complexity of the concerto's early development. The project is the brainchild of British director and violinist Adrian Chandler and Vivaldi forms the tail end of the story told here. What was necessary to make the Baroque violin concerto, Chandler asks? The list turns out to be rather long. It includes 1) the formation of a genuine string orchestra, 2) the expressive instrumental counterpoint of the Corellian trio sonata, 3) the emergence of the solo/tutti contrast, 4) the classic three-movement concerto structure, and 5) the virtuoso element, among other smaller details. The pieces on the disc, whose composers include the well-known (Vivaldi, Albinoni), the moderately well-known (Legrenzi), and the unknown (Francesco Navara, Giuseppe Valentini, and the "Composer X" who wrote the solo cantata Laudate pueri Dominum studied by the young Vivaldi. The inclusion of a vocal work makes perfect sense, for one obvious model for instrumental solos was operatic vocalism, and the performance of this work by soprano Mhairi Lawson is worth the purchase price by itself with its dramatic contrast between Lawson's explosive voice and the tense, dry tones of Chandler's ensemble La Serenissima. The other works show how composers refined and simplified the variety of stylistic choices available to them at the end of the genuinely Baroque seventeenth century, even as they grew a basic five-part ensemble into something slightly larger and more variegated. The entire disc is worth hearing for those in search of anything from an enjoyable program of Baroque string music to a good starting point for a graduate-level seminar in Italian Baroque music.

© James Manheim, All Music Guide

CD 1
Francesco Navara Composer Sonata à 5 in C Work 5:40 Adrian Chandler Violin, La Serenissima Ensemble
1	1.Sostenuto con spirito. Adagio. Tempo primo	1:23			$0.99
2	2.Allegro 1	1:42			$0.99
3	3.Adagio	1:09			$0.99
4	4.Allegro 2	1:26			$0.99
Antonio Vivaldi Composer Laudate pueri Dominum, RVanh.30 (unkown composer, manuscripts discovered by Vivaldi) Work 19:22 Adrian Chandler Violin, La Serenissima Ensemble, Mhairi Lawson Soprano
5	1.Sinfonia	1:15			$0.99
6	2.Laudate pueri Dominum	2:18			$0.99
7	3.Sit nomen Domini	2:14			$0.99
8	4.A solis ortu	1:14			$0.99
9	5.Excelsus super omnes	2:13			$0.99
10	6.Quis sicut Dominus	1:43			$0.99
11	7.Suscitans a terra	2:06			$0.99
12	8..Ut collocet eum	1:52			$0.99
13	9.Gloria Patri	1:38			$0.99
14	10.Sicut erat in principio	2:49			$0.99
Giovanni Legrenzi Composer Balletti e correnti a 5, Op.16 Work 7:39 Adrian Chandler Violin, La Serenissima Ensemble
15	Balletto II in G-: Presto	0:42			$0.99
16	Corrente II in G: Giga	1:23			$0.99
17	Balletto IV in E-: Allemanda	1:52			$0.99
18	Corrente IV in E-	1:06			$0.99
19	Balletto VI in F	1:57			$0.99
20	Corrente VI in F: Rondo alla Forlano	0:39			$0.99
Francesco Navara Composer Sonata à 5 in A- Work 5:48 Adrian Chandler Violin, La Serenissima Ensemble
21	1.Sostenuto	0:53			$0.99
22	2.Allegro assai	2:17			$0.99
23	3.Adagio	0:43			$0.99
24	4.Allegro	1:55			$0.99
Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni Composer Concerto in G for 2 Violins, 2 Violas, Cello, and Continuo, Op.2, No.8 Work 5:29 Adrian Chandler Violin, La Serenissima Ensemble
25	1.Allegro	1:53			$0.99
26	2.Adagio	1:02			$0.99
27	3.Allegro	2:34			$0.99
Giuseppe Valentini Composer Concerto No.11 for 4 violins in A-, Op.7 Work 17:37 Adrian Chandler Violin, La Serenissima Ensemble
28	1.Largo	2:37			$0.99
29	2.Allegro	5:26			$0.99
30	3.Grave. Allegro. Grave	3:35			$0.99
31	4.Presto	1:41			$0.99
32	5.Adagio	2:14			$0.99
33	6.Allegro assai	2:04			$0.99
Antonio Vivaldi Composer L'estro armonico, 12 concertos for 1-4 solo instruments, strings and continuo, Op.3...No.3 in G for Violin, RV310 Work 6:51 Adrian Chandler Violin, La Serenissima Ensemble
34	1.Allegro	2:11			$0.99
35	2.Largo	2:17			$0.99
36	3.Allegro	2:23			$0.99
Antonio Vivaldi Composer L'estro armonico, 12 concertos for 1-4 solo instruments, strings and continuo, Op.3...No.10 in B- for 4 Violins and Cello, RV580 Work 9:05 Adrian Chandler Violin, La Serenissima Ensemble
37	1.Allegro	3:28			$0.99
38	2.Largo	2:18			$0.99
39	3.Allegro	3:19			$0.99