All hail Giovanni Antonini

[hautbois]

Antonini has left his recorder at home with the Il Giardino Armonico, and this is the result:

ALL HAIL ANTONINI!

Howard

[MishaK]

YES!!

Some listening samples here: http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Ludwig-van-Beethoven-Symphonien-Nr-3-4/hnum/8812631

There is also a disc with No.s 1 & 2. http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Ludwig-van-Beethoven-Symphonien-Nr-1-2/hnum/8951986

Both are available also e.g. through amazon, but amazon has no listening samples.

[Opus106]

If I may: What's the big deal?

[hautbois]

Have you heard it? You will understand once you have!

Howard

[Josquin des Prez]

He looks like a moron in those pictures. I don't get why non-photogenic artists insist on sticking their ugly mutt on the cover. Samples sound interesting, but they are too short to form an opinion.

[Opus106]

Have you heard it? You will understand once you have!

Howard

No, I haven't. I was just wondering about all the hailing around for a fellow who has recorded a pair of Beethoven's symphonies.

Thanks for the rec, anyway. It's HIP, I presume?

[Brian]

That's 79 minutes 32 seconds of music - it could have easily been placed on a single disc. Why waste their money, and more importantly, why waste ours by making it a 2CD set? I'm not going to spend US $28 on one CD's worth of music that doesn't seem to offer anything that has not been done already. The first two chords of "Eroica" were awesomely ferocious, pretty much ideal, but the rest of the samples weren't special...

[DavidRoss]

He looks like a moron in those pictures. I don't get why non-photogenic artists insist on sticking their ugly mutt on the cover.

I'm speechless.

[Brian]

He looks like a moron in those pictures. I don't get why non-photogenic artists insist on sticking their ugly mutt on the cover. Samples sound interesting, but they are too short to form an opinion.

It's the record label that decides to subject Antonini to a ridiculous photo session, and the record label that decided to print his name bigger than Beethoven's on the cover.

[ChamberNut]

I've never heard of this guy. 

[DavidRoss]

Recorder player and founding member of Il Giardino Armonico.

The clips sound good, nearly as vibrant as Bruggen.  We're beginning to get a surfeit of fine HIP Beethoven symphony recordings, it seems.  Reviews here, here and here

[Josquin des Prez]

I'm speechless.

Too bad you can still type, hurrr hurrrr durrr durrrpp



weeeeee

[snyprrr]

If you buy Sony you listen with the terrorists.

APOPLEXY:

[FideLeo]

Recorder player and founding member of Il Giardino Armonico.

The clips sound good, nearly as vibrant as Bruggen.

The comparison to Bruggen is uncanny, as Bruggen also started on flute/traverso/recorder.  Antonini's recent Handel concerti grossi is very vibrant.

[Gabriel]

I'm very fond of Antonini's (and Il Giardino Armonico's) recording of the Brandenburg concertos. It is a sparkling, living performance.

[MishaK]

I'm very fond of Antonini's (and Il Giardino Armonico's) recording of the Brandenburg concertos. It is a sparkling, living performance.

Ditto. It's my favorite. Also their recordings of the Vivaldi Concerti da camera as well as their lovely "Un viaggio musicale" disc of Italian music of the 1600s.

[hautbois]

The price and length of the separate cds is understandable. Hybrid SACDs they are. The opening of the 4th symphony alone is worth the price of this twofer. Get it!

Howard

[FideLeo]

The price and length of the separate cds is understandable. Hybrid SACDs they are. The opening of the 4th symphony alone is worth the price of this twofer. Get it!

Howard

The Basel orchestra doesn't play on period instruments though -  not that that should deter anyone who's interested but it is worth knowing anyway.

[hautbois]

The Basel orchestra doesn't play on period instruments though -  not that that should deter anyone who's interested but it is worth knowing anyway.

Being historically informed improves a performance (Being informed doesn't really mean doing what you are informed with), but being authentic doesn't always do so, that was Nikolaus Harnoncourt's saying. It was never about sounding old, it was about learning what was done back then that might help performance in today's context. In my opinion Antonini achieves exactly that, especially in the 4th symphony, it is a roller coaster ride that he creates. My point being, Traverso is right, nothing should deter anyone from being interested in it just because it's an unknown "HIP" guy conducting, whatever HIP may mean...

Howard

p.s. and no, Antonini is not an unknown. According to a recent article i read, the music scene is having trouble finding people to conduct the big orchestras in early music repertoire. People like Harnoncourt, Norrington, and Gardiner are slowly "growing old" from the scene, and apparently Antonini has been a recent favourite with orchestras such as the Concertgebouw and the Berlin Phil. A 'successor' of sorts i guess. Plus, the Il Giardino Armonico was nothing short of a revolution.

[FideLeo]

Being historically informed improves a performance (Being informed doesn't really mean doing what you are informed with), but being authentic doesn't always do so, that was Nikolaus Harnoncourt's saying. It was never about sounding old, it was about learning what was done back then that might help performance in today's context. In my opinion Antonini achieves exactly that, especially in the 4th symphony, it is a roller coaster ride that he creates. My point being, Traverso is right, nothing should deter anyone from being interested in it just because it's an unknown "HIP" guy conducting, whatever HIP may mean...
Howard

I was wrong about the orchestra NOT playing historical instruments - they actually do, at least in baroque repertoire (see their recent Fasch recording on DHM).   But not sure about this being the case in their Beethoven.  I personally want period instruments in Beethoven though - the sound itself can be revelatory to the right kind of audience.