Les Saisons Amusantes - Vivaldi's The Four Seasons Adapted By Nicolas Chedeville / Palladian Ensemble

Nicolas Chedeville (Composer), Palladian Ensemble (Performer, Composer), Richard Egarr (Performer, Composer), Antonio Vivaldi (Artist), Pamela Thorby (Artist), Rachel Podger (Artist), Susanne Heinrich (Artist), William Carter (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Palladian Ensemble, Richard Egarr
• Composer: Nicolas Chedeville, Palladian Ensemble, Richard Egarr
• Audio CD (March 23, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Linn Records
• ASIN: B00000IGQS
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #867,544 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Les Saisons Amusantes - Le Printemps - Allegro

2. Le Printemps - Adagio sempre piano

3. Le Printemps - Pastorello: Allegro

4. Vivaldi - Sonata XII, A min, Op 2, No 2, Preludio: Largo

5. Sonata XII, Capriccio: Presto

6. Sonata XII, Grave

7. Sonata XII, Allemande: Allegro

8. Les Saisons Amusantes - Les Plaisirs de L'Ete - Allegro

9. Les Plaisirs de L'Ete - Largo

10. Les Plaisirs de L'Ete - La Caccia: Allegro

11. Les Saisons Amusantes - L'Automne - Allegro

12. L'Automne - Largo

13. L'Automne - Allegro

14. Chedeville/Vivaldi - Sonata IV, A Maj, Op 13, Preludio: Largo

15. Sonata IV, Allegro ma non presto

16. Sonata IV, Pastoral ad libitum

17. Sonata IV, Allegro

18. Les Saisons Amusantes - L'Hiver - Allegro

19. L'Hiver - Largo

20. L'Hiver - Allegro

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

If you think you've been overexposed to Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, the arrangements by 18th-century musician Nicolas Chédeville featured on this disc will give you a fresh outlook. Although your first impression might be of a very distant cousin to P.D.Q. Bach, Chédeville's versions featuring hurdy-gurdy and musette (a kind of bagpipe) actually corresponded to a contemporary French fashion. Dressed as peasants, aristocrats would accompany their slumming with rustic-sounding instruments ("real peasants," as the booklet notes dryly observe, "had their revenge a generation later"). These reworkings of Vivaldi's concerti grossi are more than mere transcriptions (a common-enough practice in the Baroque). As a kind of proto-mix master, Chédeville rearranges and actually substitutes different concertos from Vivaldi's original Op. 12 set for the familiar "Summer" and "Winter." The Palladian Ensemble, a period-instrument chamber ensemble, brings an effervescent zip to the proceedings that is truly infectious. Listen to how Vivaldi's imitative treatments of bird calls in "Spring" take on a new guise as rendered by chirping recorder against the wheezy backdrop of a hurdy-gurdy. The collaborations here radiate the sheer fun of spontaneous involvement: the "ad libitum" improvisations in Chédeville's own "Sonata in A" (which he attempted to pass off as a creation of Vivaldi's) sound like the 18th-century equivalent of a crackling jam session. Elsewhere, the plangent mingling of pipes and recorder creates a truly striking timbre, proving just how malleable is the flow of Vivaldi's melodies. The Palladian's style and panache will tease your ears with a delightful sense of invention throughout. --Thomas May

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightfully different!, November 27, 2002

By 

Brianna Neal (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Les Saisons Amusantes - Vivaldi's The Four Seasons Adapted By Nicolas Chedeville / Palladian Ensemble (Audio CD)

Ever more daring in their performance techniques and choices of music, the Palladian Ensemble has come up with an outrageously unique release. In these arrangements of Nicolas Chedeville's work, the familiar strains of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" have been remixed, as it were, to appeal to French audiences in the midst of a neo-rustic craze. "Nicolas Chedeville," according to the program notes, "was high priest of an improbable bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy cult to which much of French high society surrendered in the early 18th century. The aristocrats wandered through their country parks dressed in `peasant' clothes, picnicked on country fare...and rural music was a favourite accompaniment, played on instruments with an appropriately rustic pedigree but exquisitely craftsman-made, much `improved', sounding as civilised as they possibly could in court-professional hands." Chedeville himself was a master of the musette, a small, refined version of the bagpipe. On this recording, guest artists Jean-Pierre Rasle (musette), Nigel Eaton (hurdy-gurdy) and Richard Egarr (harpsichord and organ) help the Palladian Ensemble bring Chedeville's vision to life. The resulting CD is festive, playful and unexpected--the perfect thing to put on when nothing in a given day has gone the way you meant it to, and you just have to give up, laugh at yourself and the world, and go with it. For more fun-filled celebrations of the work of Vivaldi, I recommend "Priest on the Run" by the ensemble Red Priest, and for rustic and reedy music of an earlier period, try the recordings of Piffaro, the Renaissance Band.

1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Vivaldi en francais, March 9, 2000

By 

John Martin Marks (Baltimore, Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Les Saisons Amusantes - Vivaldi's The Four Seasons Adapted By Nicolas Chedeville / Palladian Ensemble (Audio CD)

I, for one, am sick of "The Four Seasons." It ranks second only to a certain piece by Pachelbel as public-radio pablum. For years, the only recording I could stand to listen to was Harnoncourt's - the sheer perversity of those interpretations was interesting. Now I have another option. Granted, there's a lot here that isn't really part of "The Four Seasons," and a lot that isn't really Vivaldi, but what a hoot! This is fun stuff.

If you don't have a recording of these concerti already, don't get this one - go out and buy a nice polite version by a Famous European Chamber Orchestra. But when you think you've heard it all for the thousandth time and you don't want to be reminded to respond to The Pledge Drive next time it rears its ugly head, get this album and revel in some sheer silliness brought to you by the excellent Palladian Ensemble and friends.

2 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars bowdlerized vivaldi, March 5, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Les Saisons Amusantes - Vivaldi's The Four Seasons Adapted By Nicolas Chedeville / Palladian Ensemble (Audio CD)

The Palladian Ensemble took a big risk -- playing vivaldi as adapted for French 18th century fashions (including a hurdy-gurdy). The result, unfortunately, doesn't provide much insight into Vivaldi -- the tones of Spring, for instance, sound muddied rather than sprightly.