Customer Reviews

Antonio Vivaldi: Sonatas for Violoncello & Basso Continuo - Anner Bylsma

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If such a thing as absolute ideal exists when it comes to performance, Anner Bylsma achieves it with these recordings of Vivaldi sonatas. A pioneering period-instrument specialist, Bylsma not only easily manages the technical hurdles of the repertoire and instrument, he does so with unfailing grace. But the Dutch cellist also layers the music with color and expression, making a case for Vivaldi as a composer more concerned with emotion than many of his Baroque counterparts. The "Largo" of the Sonata No. 4, RV 45 soars like the best vocal music of any era, and the rapport among Bylsma and his colleagues is at its camber-music closest. -- Peter Dobrin

A whole new world of beauty, only guessed in the version for harpsychord and violoncello, is fully revealed in this Bylsma's marvelous cd, with a second cello, a gamba and a lute, making the continuo

These sonatas and the concerti da camera were among my favourite music from Vivaldi on LP. (And yes, I do have the Four Seasons on LP.) But it wasn't until I recently heard snippets from another performance on the radio that I realised I didn't have them on CD. (On LP I have Paul Tortelier and Robert Veyron-Lacroix, whose performances were probably considered among the best in those days.) It didn't take me long to settle on Anner Bylsma's performances. I love the instrumentation used for the continuo and Bylsma himself never ceases to amaze. He takes the fast movements very fast indeed (he's never unwilling to take risks) but not once did I feel they were rushed, or in any way too fast. I am finding myself constantly reaching for this CD, causing other new CDs to remain unplayed. But Bylsma and his team of musicians don't deserve ALL the praise. Much of it has to go to Vivaldi himself, because these sonatas have to be counted as among the best music he wrote. They are still not heard anywhere near as often as they should be. This CD contains all the sonatas that were on my LP, but I understand Vivaldi wrote three more. I wish Bylsma would record them because I don't really want to double up by buying, say, Susan Sheppard's 2 CD set.