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Review by Beagle December 6, 2005 (14 of 15 found this review helpful)
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About this recording:
If you were wondering which SACD recording of the Four Seasons to buy, or if you are a Rocker and think Music by Dead Guys is vaguely suited to funerals, or if you want to convince a potential mate that you have descriminating taste, or if you want to convince your present mate that all those dollars spent on SACD stuff are a worthwhile investment, or if you want to convince a friend that his/her CDs are So-Last-Century, or even if the latest medical tests indicate a potentially serious problem, then stop your fretting and buy and play this heaven-sent recording. From the first moment that the sound appears, you will understand: it's like chocolate, it's like 20 year-old scotch, maybe like Tiajuana Gold. Name your passion, it's what the Doctor ordered. Thirty-two of thirty-two SA-CD.net users agree: this is what ears are all about.
A note or two on the music:
Vivaldi hasn't always been with us. Or rather, he has been shoved into the back ranks of obscurity by such notables as J.S. Bach, who appreciated Vivaldi enough to pass off at least 10 Vivaldi works more or less as his own (copyright? what's that?). Antonio, il prete rosso, died in penury and lawsuits, and wasn't rehabilitated and hoisted into the firmament of Greats till after WWII. Like Indiana Jones, Alberto Gentili stumbled upon a treasure-trove of original mss in the 1920s, but everything had to wait while WWII rippled across Europe and Asia. Then in 1947, Casa Ricordi began publishing EVERYTHING, ably edited by one Gian Francesco Malpiero (who moonlighed as a composer in his own right).
It is remarkable that Vivaldi's works are of a musical calibre to attract the borrowing instincts of Bach, since the works were written for... schoolgirls, the nominal orphans of the orphanage where Antonio laboured to keep them in music, instruments and tune. If you have the good fortune to attend a good live production of any of his concerti, you will be astonished that such a rich tapestry of sound is woven by a quite modest number of players (unless, of course, you have the misfortune to watch an oversized orchestra try to waddle through the numbers). I say 'any' concerto, for they are all of a quality, high quality, makeing their sorting into 'periods' virtually impossible. The famous Seasons count for only 4 of Vivaldi's 600 or so concerti.
Arte dei suonatori -- Italian for Art of the ?Sonata -- are Polish. And new to me, but be warned: Move over Academy of St Martins-in-the-Fields! Rachel Podger is a young German who's been hanging 'round with Pinnock and the English Consort for most of the last decade. If you have been kissing a photo of Julia Fischer good-night each night, then by all means acquire a photo of Ms Podger as well. My own personal preference is for Podger's warm understatement, rather than Fischer's mathematical purity (fighting words?).
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