Customer Reviews

Vivaldi: Concerti Per Oboe (Vivaldi Edition)

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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

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.

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.

SORRY FOR MY BAD ENGLISH..I'VE RECEIVED THE ITEM PERFECTLY AND SO QUICKLY..THANK YOU FOR YOUR GOOD JOB