Viva Vivaldi!

[Antoine Marchand]

Much more completist than me. Of course it is not that I do not like Vivaldi, but my completism concerning Vivaldi is guided by the fact, that I almost always prefer to listen to Bach instead.

I don't need to make choices here. Although without any doubt Bach is my favorite composer, I consider Vivaldi one of my top 5. Tonight, right now, I am listening to a wonderful disc of Vivaldi's sacred music, performed by Parrott and his gang, with those two angelic sopranos named Emily van Evera and Nancy Argenta. While I listen to the Gloria in D major RV 589, I wonder if any composer has written his love to God with a sense of more infectious joy... When I listen to the Gloria in excelsis or Quoniam tu solus sanctus, I can't avoid to dance in my chair.     

[prémont]

I don't need to make choices here. Although without any doubt Bach is my favorite composer, I consider Vivaldi one of my top 5. Tonight, right now, I am listening to a wonderful disc of Vivaldi's sacred music, performed by Parrott and his gang, with those two angelic sopranos named Emily van Evera and Nancy Argenta. While I listen to the Gloria in D major RV 589, I wonder if any composer has written his love to God with a sense of more infectious joy... When I listen to the Gloria in excelsis or Quoniam tu solus sanctus, I can't avoid to dance in my chair. 

The necessity of my choice is governed by the fact that my time for listening (for many reasons) is limited after all.

[Antoine Marchand]

The necessity of my choice is governed by the fact that my time for listening (for many reasons) is limited after all.

Well, I am governed by the same economic law. I also need some daily bread... so you're not so special Mr. Premont.   

[Karl Henning]

Experiencing something of a personal renaissance with the music of Il prete rosso, thanks to acquisitions such as Gidon Kremer's Eight Seasons, the Raglan Baroque Players' account of La Cetra &c., and the Ofra Harnoy box of the cello concerti and sonatas.

Yesterday I fetched in a disc of the viola d'amore concerti, and I am slouching rapidly towards bringing in a copy of La Stravaganza . . . any particular recommendations out there?

Oh, and the sacred music box which a number of GMG'ers have been pounding the table for . . . .

(Is it really possibly that there is not yet a Vivaldi thread in the Composers section? I ran a search, really I did . . . .)

Again, I think it may well be a result of recent-ish obsessions with D. Scarlatti, Frescobaldi and F. Couperin, that my ears are freshly perked up for A.V.

[Opus106]

(Is it really possibly that there is not yet a Vivaldi thread in the Composers section? I ran a search, really I did . . . .)

Shocking, really! (Not one to even make fun of his music?)

Have you heard any Biondi at all, Karl? He and his band are simply ravishing in the Italian repertoire.

[mc ukrneal]

No Vivaldi thread? That is a surprise!

For La Stravaganza, Biondi is excellent, but he didn't do the full set. There is a pretty good set on Channel classics - I always forget the name of that group for some reason. Anyway, it's good. You might still be able to find the Marriner set. But I think it might only be available in a bigger box - not sure. I'm sure you could find I Musici in a box and there may be other boxes as well, but not sure you want to go for something like that. Strange how there are really very few non-set versions of it around that I can think of.

[Karl Henning]

Thanks, Neal (and thanks, Nav!). Aye, I noted that the Biondi was incomplete (and I may well fetch that in afterwards at some point). Rachel Podger and Arte dei Suonatori (a group formed in Poland, it seems) did strike me as good, so I'll give that a spin this afternoon.

[mc ukrneal]

Rachel Podger and Arte dei Suonatori (a group formed in Poland, it seems) did strike me as good, so I'll give that a spin this afternoon.

That's the one I was thinking of! This name just does not stay with me for whatever reason! Funny how that happens sometimes...

[Karl Henning]

It is good!

[Mirror Image]

I'm very surprised there is no Vivaldi thread. Personally, I really like his music and he's one of the few Baroque composers I can enjoy on a regular basis. This said, I do own quite a bit of his music. L'estro Armonico is probably one of my favorite series that Vivaldi wrote. As Opus106 has mentioned, the Biondi recordings are fantastic. I own them all on Virgin Classics and the Opus 111 label. I haven't heard any of I Musici's Vivaldi recordings. I do remember seeing two big Philips box sets featuring all of their performances. I really enjoy Neville Marriner's Vivaldi recordings on Decca. If you can find the box set (I think it's out-of-print now), then by all means get it. Another set I own is Hogwood/Academy of Ancient Music and I'm not really too crazy about it. I found the performances a little lackluster. One of the last sets I bought was Trevor Pinnock/English Consort. I found these performances much more energetic than Hogwood's, so they were much more to my liking.

[Karl Henning]

To be frank, it don't see much use in the distinction - you guys are going to discuss recordings anyway...

What if I find a Vivaldi clarinet concerto, eh? ; )

[Que]

Problem solved...

[Gurn Blanston]

What if I find a Vivaldi clarinet concerto, eh? ; )

There is one, actually, or really, a couple of them. They feature chalumeaux, of course... 

[Karl Henning]

So, those antique half-clarinets ; )

I'm particularly keying into the viola d'amore concerti; and the start I've made into La Stravaganza I'm finding exciting, as well.

[Florestan]

Change viola d'amore with viola da gamba and you get this excellent disc:

[asin]B0000TMJJQ[/asin]

[Karl Henning]

Looks very nice, Andrei!  I shan't be any compleatist with Vivaldi (any more than with Scarlatti or Haydn) . . . but I am happily expanding my view of his catalogue.

And thanks, ~ Q ~!

[Madiel]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but... you don't seem to have a dedicated Vivaldi thread around here!

Which really surprised me.  Is he just not the sort of man to inspire dedicated attention?

About 6 months ago my Vivaldi collection increased in size about 1500 per cent, so I'm very much in a process of discovery.  And I wouldn't claim to love everything that I've heard, but there really is some fine music in there and an awful lot of inventiveness.  Even if The Four Seasons is done to death, a good performance can show what imaginative pieces they are.

The biggest boost to my collection was the Hyperion box of sacred music:

[asin]B00000DUE7[/asin]

I've listened through the whole box, but I'm now going back again and focusing more carefully on a piece or small group of pieces at a time. The one irritating thing about the box is that there's not a great deal of rhyme or reason to the arrangement of pieces.  I downloaded the booklets from the individual volumes of the Hyperion website to get some kind of handle on which pieces belonged together, in at least the sense of being from the same era or collection of manuscripts.

[Elgarian]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but... you don't seem to have a dedicated Vivaldi thread around here!

This seemed odd, because I remembered participating in a lengthy discussion of Vivaldi's vocal music a couple of years ago. So I searched a bit and found that there is indeed a thread devoted entirely to Vivaldi's vocal music here (including that King's Consort box you have, as well as the operas, etc):

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,13065.0.html

[mc ukrneal]

This seemed odd, because I remembered participating in a lengthy discussion of Vivaldi's vocal music a couple of years ago. So I searched a bit and found that there is indeed a thread devoted entirely to Vivaldi's vocal music here (including that King's Consort box you have, as well as the operas, etc):

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,13065.0.html

Here is one in the composer thread: http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,1322.msg583093.html#msg583093

[Madiel]

Darn it. 

I did search.  And also, he somehow wasn't in the index.

Now, can someone come along with super-duper powers and clean up my mess?