Vivaldi: Concerti Per Oboe (Vivaldi Edition)

Zefiro (Artist), Bernardini (Artist), Vivaldi (Composer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Composer: Vivaldi
• Audio CD (August 25, 2009)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Naive
• ASIN: B00266LA2S
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #78,232 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Fanfare, Raymond Tuttle, Jan-Feb 2010

Vivaldi is credited with about 20 concertos for oboe, strings, and basso continuo, although some are probably inauthentic, and others are alternative versions of works composed for other instruments. (For example, RV 450, RV 457, and RV 463 all were adapted by the composer from bassoon concertos.) When Vivaldi started writing concertos for this instrument, probably during the first decade of the 1700s, it was a young instrument. Predictably, some of the first performers were orphans in the Ospedale della Pietà. His oldest oboe concertos, however, were composed for the Saxon court in Dresden. Because Vivaldi composed oboe concertos throughout much of his career, a selection of them can provide listeners with an overview of his stylistic development. The seven concertos offered here do just that. There's much to enjoy. I was sucked in by the very first concerto, RV 447, whose opening phrases are separated by deliciously pregnant pauses.

Bernardini plays two different modern copies of an English oboe dating from 1730. The timbre is not as rich as that of a modern oboe. It can be a little "quacky" in the outer movements, but the sound in the slow movements is very agreeable. Bernardini's tempos, and other directorial choices, are sensible, and the impression one is given by these performances is one of dependability, although not one of excited discovery. Zefiro is a small group. Naïve's booklet lists two violins, one viola, one cello, one double bass, one harpsichord or organ, and one theorbo or Baroque guitar. Given the ensemble's size, Bernardini's oboe sometimes overpowers it.

Three of these concertos (RV 455, RV 453, and RV 463) were recorded for Astrée (8537) in 1994 and are reissued here. The remainder are new recordings. Note that, apart from Bernardini himself, the membership of Zefiro appears to have changed completely in the interim. "Old" Zefiro contained familiar names such as keyboard player Pierre Hantai and theorbist Rolf Lislevand. After hearing this CD several times, though, I was unaware of the personnel changes until I read about them in the booklet. The recording venue was moved as well, from France to Italy, but there's little about the recording itself to announce that fact.

This is another release in Naïve's ongoing Vivaldi series--the one with the attractive models on the front. I know some people have gone nearly apoplectic over the cover photography, but that seems like much ado about nothing. In terms of beauty, I think that teens and twenty-somethings, regardless of their gender, can have a lot in common with Vivaldi's music.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Naïve's Exemplary Vivaldi Edition Continues, September 1, 2009

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vivaldi: Concerti Per Oboe (Vivaldi Edition) (Audio CD)

The Naïve label has been issuing several CDs a year in its continuing Vivaldi series whose purpose is to record all the music contained in the Vivaldi autograph manuscripts held in the National University Bibliotheque (Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria) in Turin, about 450 works in all. These manuscripts were those in Vivaldi's own home library at the time of his death in 1741.

This CD contains seven oboe concerti (presented in this order: RV 447, 455, 451, 463, 457, 453, 450). The oboist is Alfredo Bernardini, who is also one of the founding members of Zefiro. Three of the concerti (RV455, 463, 453) were originally recorded and released on the Astrée label in 1994. The others were recorded for this CD in 2008. These concerti represent a little less than half of the oboe concerti Vivaldi wrote. (One has to be careful about numbers when writing about Vivaldi's oeuvre because new works are always turning up.) The oboe had only recently been introduced in Italy when Vivaldi wrote his first work using the instrument. All of this CD's concerti have three movements. Some passages of note: in the slow movement of RV 455 the oboe is accompanied by unison violins alone and its finale is a jig; the finale of RV 451 quotes the 'Peccator videbit' movement of Vivaldi's familiar 'Beatus vir' (RV 597); the first movement of RV 450 uses the main theme from the aria 'Scocca dardi' from his opera 'Griselda' (also recorded in this series) Vivaldi: Griselda (Vivaldi Edition). The three concerti RV 450, 457 & 463 were adapted from three of Vivaldi's bassoon concerti.

The playing here is vigorous, soulful or songful in turn. Bernardini is a master of his instrument and Zefiro is completely in tune with his musical intentions.

Scott Morrison

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lots To See If You Have The Right Lens, December 6, 2010

By 

M. Figg (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vivaldi: Concerti Per Oboe (Vivaldi Edition) (Audio CD)

No matter how snazzy the suit or racy the joke, you'll reach a point where you need a wardrobe change or new writer. All good things must come to an occasional pause! Repetition drowns the life out of even our greatest pleasures, and few composers go under like Vivaldi. While his motor rhythms and driving sequences kick a program into fifth gear, a whole block of Vivaldi's distinctive energy can get tiresome. Stravinsky's quip that Vivaldi "wrote the same concerto 600 times" needs musical argument rather than rhetorical skill for rebuttal. Luckily the Italian period-instrument ensemble Zefiro are all stunning orators.

Seven works for oboe, strings and continuo, all in three movements of fast-slow-fast, doesn't suggest variety but Zefiro milks these sturdy forms for all they're worth. They put Vivaldi's signature sunniness through a prism and refract a range of expressive colors. The cat and mouse imitations of RV463's third movement ricochet off the grain of the strings. RV447's opening fanfares flop down in self-parody, and RV451's hustling lines paint a picture of rush hour on the Venetian lagoon. The use of one player per part has the light feel of 6 soloists, rather than soloist plus 5 piece orchestra.

Alfredo Bernardini's oboe still remains the focal point, and he revels in the instrument's glistening, nasal timbre. Even if its pinched flavor is not to your taste, Bernardini's personality seasons several courses. During the languorous slow movements, his bittersweet tone keeps things from turning cloying, while sharpening the trills and runs for the fast movements. On the nursery rhyme of RV447's final movement, another virtuoso might churn out the spiraling double-time variations like an exercise. Yet the sweat in Bernardini's sound tells us that every note speeding by means much more to him.

Composer/comedian Peter Schickele's "All-Baroque Radio" consisted of several scales, endlessly going up and down. Most of the time "it's funny 'cause it's true," but we can thank Zefiro for spoiling the joke. The conventions of Baroque music and Vivaldi take their rightful place in this band: familiar suggestions for how to direct their own creativity, not well-worn expectations to live up to. Hearing Bernardini and band burn through the Red Priest's runs reminded me that this was and still is music for intensity as well as reflection.

5.0 out of 5 stars Vivaldi from the Heart, January 10, 2012

By 

GeneH (Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Vivaldi: Concerti Per Oboe (Vivaldi Edition) (Audio CD)

Much of the Baroque suffers from the impression that it's akin to a sewing machine, too regular, too bland, too rigid. Solution seeking, rules, pedantic navel gazing that sacrifices feeling for form.

This is the third or fourth version of these works that I have heard. Zefiro has a degree of discipline and spontaneity, color and authenticity, which I have not heard in earlier performances.

Zefiro brings to bear a degree of involvement and feeling that is rare in performances. A tasteful blend of discipline and spontaneity of performance. There is a lot of "soloist" work going on behind the scenes that does not seek to stand out but to support. Concerted effort in the best sense of the word.

A Theorbo and Basso Continuo that lends very subtle color along with stability. A ripieno which seems to peek out as soliosts... and Mr. Bernardini's Oboe, which carries the duties of theme, counterpoint and yet shares in subtle ways meaning and progress.

The Oboe work is not simple but is not florid or Romantic either. It's well balanced and mature, the freedom of youth, the wisdom of experience.

One thinks that the ensemble is both an ensemble and a collection of gifted soloists, lending color and spontaneity to old music, making it live again. There is disciplined spontaneity here, there is life.

I can easily imagine such performances at the Ospedalie. Mr. Vivaldi playing along, leading the Girls to star and to work together in turn.

There is much joy, irony and humor here amidst the color. I laughed at various times. Yes, one can laugh at irony or the unexpected and here it may be seen.

This CD does not contain tired old Baroque. Vivaldi lives again.