Customer Reviews

Biber: Battalia / Locke: The Tempest / Zelenka: Fanfare / Il Giardino Armonico

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Il Giardino Armonico are, by now, renowned for their flashy, energetic approach to baroque music, and it is a well-deserved label. Two of these pieces have been better recorded elsewhere, however. Andrew Manze's recording of "Die Katz" on Harmonia Mundi is far superior to Onofri's rendition. Manze captures the programmatic essence of this solo violin sonata, glissandos cleverly mimicking the cat's meow. Onofri rushes through it in another show of his talent that, sadly, lacks consideration. Listen to the two different versions and you'll hear what I mean.

The Battalia a 10, an extraordinary and marvelous work from 1673, is oddly doctored up by Il Giardino Armonico. The joyous presto following "the dissolute revels of the musketeers" (a dissonant cacophony of folk songs) is cut tragically short. The next section, "the march," features an excellent fife and drum imitation by the violin and bass (with paper in the strings to make it buzz). The group chose to record this part as if they are marching by the listener, the results of which mean reduced clarity where it would otherwise be most welcome. I appreciate the motivations behind this but the result is less than pleasing. For a superior rendition of the Battalia look for Philip Pickett and the New London Consort's recording of Biber's Requiem in F minor on L'Oiseau-Lyre. This is one of my favorie pieces of music and while I love Il Giardino Armonico they don't give it the reading it deserves.

On the plus side, there's a lot of other great music here, including the Partita for two violas d'amore which sounds incredible. Here the group surpasses Jeanne Lamon's Tafelmusik, who don't come anywhere near Il Giardino Armonico's rich texture of sound with their Sony release. Biber still has a way to go in becoming a big name in the baroque repertoire, but his music is amazing and this CD brings together some of the best of it. I highly recommend the Pickett and Manze CD's, but this is a good recording overall, especially if you've never heard this composer or ensemble before. There is much life in this music, still.

Although I was a music major, I had never heard of von Biber until my husband bought me a CD of his choral music. I returned the favor with "Battalia" for his birthday and it's a great example of earlier Baroque. It's well worth having in any Baroque lover's collection.

Thuis recording is an absolutly fantastic buy, the freshness, and vitality which il giradino armonico employ in their interpretation is not only extreemly exciting to listen to, but also works very very well, i think that the hightlight of the whole cd is the sonata representativa, which has a freshness and gypsy-style of violin playing that I have never heard before. A truly excellant recording.

There are many baroque specialists, but Il Giardino Armonico is special among them. Their interpretation is aggresive or unfamiliar when you listen to this recording first. As you listen to it repeatedly, you can know that their performance is great and gives us new point of this work

If you are one of those with an extremely sensitive spirit, you should enjoy this master work. You'll never be closer to God.