La Stravaganza: Vol 1

Rachel Podger | Format: MP3 Download

Product Details

• Performers: Antonio Vivaldi, Rachel Podger, Arte Dei Suonatori
• Composers: Antonio Vivaldi
• Original Release Date: November 30, 2002
• Label: Channel Classics Records
• Copyright: 2006 Channel Classics Records
• Total Length: 54:20
• Genres: Classical/Chamber Music, Classical/Historical Periods/Baroque (c.1600-1750), Classical/Historical Periods/Classical (c.1770-1830)
• ASIN: B000QZUB4O
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #167,071 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Podger outdoes herself!, August 20, 2003

By 

Andres Sender (N. CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vivaldi: La Stravaganza (Audio CD)

Rachel Podger is a unique talent, an exceedingly expressive player with an emotionally immediate presence who is at the same time not self-indulgent or wild. Ms. Podger digs deeply and thoughtfully into the music to bring out the maximum of expression through her own especially flexible and articulated approach to the vocabulary of the baroque violin. Her expression occurs within a discipline of respecting the structure and boundaries of the music itself. She remains a highly objective communicator even while seeking to pull as much feeling from the music as she can.

I'm a huge Rachel Podger fan, but I bought this new CD with some hesitation. I'd been rather floored by Fabio Biondi's interpretations of Vivaldi and I wasn't sure Ms. Podger's strengths would come through with as much impact. I was concerned since in the past Ms. Podger's unique playing style has sometimes seemed to fade when she plays with an orchestra-her Bach recording with A. Manze was disappointing this way, somehow she seemed a bit held back. (Unlike the reviewer above I don't find any similarity between Manze and Podger, indeed despite Manze's seemingly universal appeal, I can't like his playing, for me there is something insincere and mannered in all his pyrotechnics, whereas Ms. Podger always seems deeply and sincerely in the heart of the music.)

I should not have worried. Rachel Podger has outdone herself. She has taken these Vivaldi pieces and infused them with her own brand of detailed sumptuous playing, reveling in the music in a sensual, joyous way that at times outdistances even some of her solo Bach performances for sheer musical fluidity and agility. The fact that she has been able so fully to express her unique playing in the context of working with an orchestra is quite an achievement and step forward, and the result is especially exciting. So exciting, in fact, that even in the slow movements I found myself energized and exhilarated by the superlatively managed tension between highly expressive playing and a rigorous overall sense of meter and truth to the music.

The orchestra itself is surprisingly good ('surprising' only in that I hadn't heard of them before), supporting and opposing Ms. Podger very well. The only thing one might quibble about is the overall texture, which is a bit round and smooth and unified, not quite as transparent as I would have preferred--more along the lines of Carmignola/Venice Baroque (whose interpretations have yet to grab me) than of Biondi/Europa Galante. This is of course an exceedingly minor quibble, as the overall impression is of an orchestra perfectly able and willing to match Ms. Podger's approach to the music and intertwine itself with her playing. With Ms. Podger's playing at its best, magnified and underlined by a willing orchestra, this CD is a `must have' for Podger-lovers, Vivaldi-lovers, and period-performance-lovers, and it would be a great introduction for the merely curious.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What the heck is going on with Baroque music reviewers these days?, April 15, 2009

By 

Wayne A. (Belfast, Northern Ireland) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Vivaldi: La Stravaganza (Audio CD)

On first try, this set knocked me on my hinder. This is Vivaldi played with the kind of swing and gusto that one now easily imagines might be close to the true performance norm in the 17th and 18th Centuries [there's a long argument in there that would take up too much space--but merely recall the daring and exuberance of design and the arts of those times). I think the age of somewhat bland or academically correct Baroque playing is finally over. This is music I'm almost too familiar with; and each piece here sounded new and fresh, but in an unconscious, spontaneous way that didn't cause me to wince at all at the possible oddities and (what otherwise might be called)"mannerisms." If Podger is following her instincts--and in an informed manner--then she's on a good path.

The recording is very much in-your-face but I've played the CDs both on a decent system and on a cheap boom-box and they sounded great on either. The engineering and miking are such that they may strain at less benevolent sound reproduction systems, but again, they sounded swell on the boom box.

I am getting perplexed though by these bizarre one and two star reviews I've been encountering of these newer recordings and performances. Everyone's entitled to an opinion, but THESE opinions (which also turn up repeatedly on nearly anything Manze does) are so resolutely wayward that I almost wonder if they're jokes. Someone might legitimately call Manze's or Podger's playing kooky or over-the-top but to describe,as one reviewer here does, this recording as a reversion to older style performance practices, or saying the fiddling is boring or unemotional (a common complaint of a Manze "stalker-reviewer") is, to be blunt, just plain crazy itself.

Further (and I've commented on this in other reviews) if all major professional reviewers, and the bulk of the Amazon reviewers, aren't having problems with the engineering, and YOU are, maybe instead of delivering a pouty two-star review complaining about bad sound, you might have your stereo, your ears, and maybe even your @!%$! head examined. Last time I caught someone doing this I checked through his reviews and in one he admitted to owning an "inexpensive portable system" that played his pop LP's (!) "just fine." His one-star review succeeded in significantly lowering the average rating for an excellent but review-light recording. That's irresponsible.

I'm also getting sick and tired of the lone "What's the big deal?" one-or-two star reviewer. The big deal, dear reviewer, is that thousands of people are loving this recording and you aren't. I wouldn't advertise that embarrassing fact, unless you can back up your bad attitude with one very comprehensive, informed, and, hope-upon-hope, entertaining argument. These pointless reviews are invariably only one or two sentences long and contain no argument whatsoever. These are the kinds of opinions that should be restricted to restroom walls.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Earth to Giacomo C.--what recording did you listen to?, September 4, 2007

By 

anonymous (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vivaldi: La Stravaganza (Audio CD)

Just a note to correct the impression Giacomo C. might have left with someone. He doesn't know what he's talking about. I haven't a clue what recording he listened to, but it's not the same one I listened to..that I'm listening to now.

This is period playing that's right up-to-date. Not as nuanced as Concerto Italian at their best, nor as witty as Europa Galante and Fabio Biondi...but to call this stuffy playing is completely wrong. Completely. Wrong. I dunno what Giacomo listened to, but it wasn't this.

Podger has some real flair, the ensemble has fine, stylish conception of the music. This is music that was distinctly experimental for its time (1717, for crying out loud! Telemann's Tafelmusik was 20 years away), and while I might wish for a little more sly wit here and there, there are some wonderful effects here, some brilliant ensemble playing--love the plucked instruments in the continuo! Perfect!--the total impression is 5-stars PLUS!

The Huggett recording was all we had for a long time, thanfully it eclipsed the old ASMF recording completely, which was dated even in its time, and is almost unlistenable now. This new recording from Podger makes Huggett and Hogwood sound boring, alas. Hard to be boring in this music too, but, time marches on. At the time Huggett did her recording period style was still experiencing growing pains. I'm sure she'd have a different approach now.

It'd be great if Europa Galante or Concerto Italiano, or Hesperion XXI would record this music, but until they do--and even when they do--this recording by Podger and her spectacular-sounding Polish period ensemble is right up there with the best Vivaldi-playing available on CD.