Antonio Vivaldi

Paul Tortelier had the lean, ascetic look of an El Greco saint, yet possessed the turbulent idealism of Don Quixote, whom he portrayed so memorably in Richard Strauss’s tone poem. Tortelier was born in Paris in 1914, months before the outbreak of the Great War. Though the family knew poverty, it was his mother’s dream that her son should be a cellist. He started to learn the instrument at the age of six and at 12 he entered the Paris Conservatoire where he won several prizes before leaving at 16 to play freelance in cafés and cinemas in the days of silent films. A year later he made his professional debut playing Lalo’s Concerto at the Concerts Lamoureux. In 1935 he went to the Monte-Carlo Orchestra as principal cellist and two years later played Don Quixote under Strauss’s own direction. He began his solo career in 1938 in Boston, but this was interrupted by the war, during which he remained in Paris. In 1947 he played Don Quixote in Beecham’s Richard Strauss festival in London to great acclaim. This effectively relaunched his international career and he went on to become one of the world’s most distinguished cellists. He died suddenly in 1990 at the age of 76.

Bach’s solo Cello Suites were always an integral part of Tortelier’s repertoire and CD 1 opens with the first three movements of Suite No.1 in G. Following this is another Baroque work, the Cello Concerto in D by Vivaldi, in which Tortelier also directs the English Chamber Orchestra. Next comes the finale from Haydn’s Cello Concerto No.2 in D recorded with Jörg Faerber conducting the Wurtemburg Chamber Orchestra in Heilbronn. We then hear movements from Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No.4 in C with the French pianist Eric Heidsieck, and Brahms’s Cello Sonata No.2 in F in which the pianist is Tortelier’s daughter, Maria de la Pau. The CD ends with Tortelier’s third EMI recording of his signature work, Don Quixote by Richard Strauss with the Staatskapelle Dresden under Rudolf Kempe.

CD 2 begins with the first two movements of another of the works central to Tortelier’s repertoire, Elgar’s Cello Concerto, a performance of which won him a prize while he was studying at the Paris Conservatoire. This is followed by an extract from the Walton Cello Concerto conducted by Paavo Berglund and then Paganini’s variations on an operatic aria by Rossini to show off Tortelier’s technical skill as a virtuoso of his instrument, this recording conducted by Tortelier’s cellist wife, Maud Tortelier. Next comes a group of encore pieces, including the inevitable ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ and ‘Le Cygne’, culminating in Three Miniatures for two cellos composed by Tortelier himself and played here with his wife Maud as the second cellist. The programme finishes with a spirited performance of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Rococo’ Variations with the Northern Sinfonia of England conducted by Tortelier’s son Jan Pascal Tortelier.

After recording Vivaldi's set of Violin Concertos 'La Stravaganza', Opus 4, in 2003, Rachel Podger has been immersed in music by Mozart and Bach on disc. But it has now felt right to come back to the Venetian Maestro, whose sense of drama she adores: “This time I chose his opus 9, the set of 12 Violin concertos entitled 'La Cetra'. There are plenty of jewels in this set, just as in 'La Stravaganza', with even higher technical demands made on the soloist including many, often exotic experimental effects.”

"What I like most of all is her evident relish of the virtuoso demands that the music makes: she rises splendidly to them, making the most of Vivaldi’s extravagant writing” Gramophone: Awards 2003 (Vivaldi, 'La Stravaganza')

“Podger has one of the sweetest tones of any period-instrument violinist.” BBC Music Magazine (Bach Violin Concertos)

Adrian Chandler and La Serenissima, with virtuoso soloists soprano Mhairi Lawson, trumpeter Simon Munday and bassoonist Peter Whelan, transport you back to the heyday of the Venetian Republic with music from grand opera, serenatas, concertos, sinfonias, motets and gondoliers’ ballads, including several world premiere recordings.

Adrian Chandler’s and La Serenissima’s 10th release for Avie – coinciding with the label’s 10th Anniversary – has all the hallmarks that have made the Vivaldi specialists one of the best-selling and acclaimed period-instrument bands performing today. Adrian’s erudition and his ensemble’s crowd-pleasing performances combine to produce recordings that are at once popular and enlightening. Venice by Night evokes an era of the Venetian Republic when the arts flourished, attracting audiences from all over Europe including scores of royalty. Feeding the tourist trade, the resident composers revelled in creating everything from grand operas and serenatas, virtuoso concertos and sinfonias, motets and gondoliers’ ballads. As with the chart-topping Vivaldi: The French Connection 2 (AV2218) which featured the world-premiere recording of the flute concerto Il Gran Mogol, Adrian has once again unearthed numerous works from this period that are recorded for the first time.

World premiere recordings of Vivaldi scores recently discovered in Europe.

This is the 45th title in the Vivaldi Edition, 3 years after the first recording dedicated to Vivaldi scores discovered in Europe between 2000 and 2007, now in its 12th year. This second volume features the most recent discoveries in world premiere recordings and will further contribute to complete one of the most fascinating jigsaw puzzles in musical history Federico Maria Sardelli is a member of the musicological committee of the Istituto Italiano Antonio Vivaldi at the Fondazione Cini in Venice, for which he has published numerous scholarly essays. In July 2007 Peter Ryom chose him to continue his monumental work of cataloguing the music of Antonio Vivaldi; since then, Sardelli has been the editor of the Vivaldi Werkverzeichnis (RV).

Since 2008 the harvest has been abundant enough to nourish this second volume of Vivaldian revelations, including a violin concerto, a flute concerto and 4 opera arias from 'L'inganno trionfante in amore', one of the most important lost opera scores of Vivaldi.

Alongside Sardelli and his orchestra Modo Antiquo, the recording features such illustrious names as mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg, violinist Anton Steck and flautist Alexis Kossenko.

Marita Paparizou is a Greek mezzosoprano and a genuine coloratura marvel. She gives compelling performances in great roles around the world. Here she performs with the proven baroque opera experts I Solisti Veneti, conducted by Claudio Scimone. In addition to arias by Vivaldi, she performs works by Handel and Bertoni.

In the eighteenth century, 1,300 years after the last Olympic Games in ancient times, the Olympic theme was highly fashionable. Many composers based operas on the libretto L'Olimpiade by Metastasio. This recording has been structured to contain all of Metastasio’s original arias; it is a pasticcio in the sense that the music is by 16 different composers amongst the many that set the libretto between 1733 and the end of the century.

This new release includes 16 arias in world-premiere recording.

This is the 46th title in the Vivaldi Edition and the 4th volume, out of approximately 12, of the series dedicated to the violin concertos whose manuscripts are held in the National Library of Turin. All the concertos selected here were composed for, dedicated to or performed in front of Charles VI (1685-1740), sovereign of the Habsburg Empire, renowned as patron and passionate lover of music. This series of 7 concertos is an overview of the complete art of Vivaldi as a composer and violinist: large-scale music, invention, expression, energy, power of evocation, played with considerable virtuosity.

Riccardo Minasi, 33, is one of the leading Italian baroque violinists and also has a career as a conductor Il Pomo d'Oro is a new baroque orchestra that gathers excellent musicians from several high-level baroque orchestras including Il Complesso Barocco.

A new recording from Roberta Invernizzi always gives pleasure, but on the rare occasion when the Italian soprano is placed in the spotlight, as with this new collection of opera arias, it promises something very special indeed. Invernizzi is known for her style and drama in the music of the Baroque (as on recent discs of Handel and Campra). This new journey, on Glossa, showcases Vivaldi’s own fertile dramatic capacity to capture moods and a whole range of emotional highs and lows embracing anger, despair, anxiety, amorous frustration and touching intensity. Invernizzi triumphs, crowned by her electrifying performance of 'Dopo un’orrida procella' from 'Griselda'.

The programme offers a set of contrasts in known arias from Vivaldi’s operatic music and those which deserve to be better-known. Invernizzi’s interpretation is aided and abetted by La Risonanza’s fine group of instrumentalists and, of course, sympathetic direction from Fabio Bonizzoni, speaking volumes for their long musical association.