Vivaldi: Sacred Music, Vol. 7 [Import]

Antonio Vivaldi (Composer), Robert King (Conductor), King's Consort (Performer), Carolyn Sampson (Performer), Susan Gritton (Performer), Charles Daniels (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: King's Consort, Carolyn Sampson, Susan Gritton, Charles Daniels
• Conductor: Robert King
• Composer: Antonio Vivaldi
• Audio CD (September 11, 2001)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Hyperion UK
• ASIN: B00005N8E7
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #275,157 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

From International Record Review - subscribe now

Having just welcomed an admirable new recording of Vivaldi's 'other' D major Gloria, RV588, from Philip Pickett and the New London Consort, Hyperion's series of Vivaldi's sacred music now serves us up the same fare: a well-timed coincidence, which hopefully will help put the lesser-known work on the musical map. Confusingly, both works are very similarly scored and even share some material. Like Pickett, Robert King prefaces the Gloria proper with the non-liturgical solo motet, Jubilate, O amoeni chori (Vivaldi noted in the autograph, now in Turin, how the work was to be performed either with or without this introduzione, which leads directly into the first movement of the Gloria). Unlike Volume 6, King opts for a male rather than an (authentic) female tenor soloist. Throughout, honours are very evenly divided between King and Pickett in this work (the 'Et in terra pax' seems to me almost identical, for example), and choice will probably depend on personal preference in the matter of soloists; both teams are of a very high quality. King and Pickett, I think, see RV588 as a gentler work than its D major cousin, RV589, although I can't see that this is inherent in the music.Of the other pieces on the disc, the most substantial one is the virtuoso 23-minute Laudate pueri for soprano and orchestra. The solo part is taken by Carolyn Sampson, who gives a finely lyrical account of it; she is a welcome addition to King's solo roster. Mention must also be made of flautist Rachel Brown, whose contribution to the 'Gloria Patri' movement is distinguished (Michael Talbot suggests in his exemplary booklet notes that this is a homage to Quantz, who would have met Vivaldi in Venice in 1726). Two shorter works round out the disc, an efficiently compressed and catchy setting of the psalm Laetatus sum and a solo motet Vestro principi Divino. Talbot proposes that the latter was written for the Pietà singer, violist and theorbist Geltruda, whose voice is known to have been quiet and of narrow range, features reflected in the setting. Nathalie Stutzmann has no problems in either respect, of course, but there is a slight touch of blandness about the performance nonetheless.The recording was made at the same sessions as the previous volume, with the resonant acoustics of St-Jude-on-the-Hill, Hampstead, effectively standing in for the Pietà chapel; again, the recorded sound is first-rate. As ever with King's Consort recordings, the singers marginally outshine the instrumentalists, but this is still one of the most rewarding discs in this splendid series to date.Francis Knights