Vivaldi: Concerto for strings No. 5, RV 114

“The adage goes that Vivaldi did not so much compose hundreds of concertos as write the same concerto hundreds of times. However, this disc featuring the estimable cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras illustrates the fallacy of that argument. ...Queyras is equal to all Vivaldi’s challenges and intricacies, adopting a buoyant “period” style that is fully matched by the incisive, pungent playing of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.” The Telegraph, 29th September 2011 *****

“[in RV409] Queyras’s soft-grained tone is strikingly partnered by the almost bleakly plaintive bassoon playing of Christian Beuse. The players of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin delight in the sharp cut and thrust that Vivaldi so often offers in theses works.” The Irish Times, 7th October 2011 ****

“Queyras’s handling of Vivaldi’s dazzling streams in the faster movements is brilliant and precise, despite extreme tempos, and he is eloquently expressive in the beautifully phrased slower music. In two effervescent and sophisticated concertos for two violins and cello (RV 415 and RV 565), his partners, Georg Kallweit and Elfa Run Kristinsdottir, are equally good.” Sunday Times, 9th October 2011

“The timbre and sonority of Queyras's instrument imparts a rich, antique flavour, while his deft bowing – as on the finale to the "Concerto in G minor" – perfectly embodies the Vivaldian qualities of delight and vivacity. The album is full of memorable moments” The Independent, 21st October 2011 ****

“Queyras's Adagio, with the lightest of accompaniments - solo lute - is especially eloquent...Queyras's scheme, alternating the cello with varied sinfonias and concertos for the string band, is particularly successful, with a series of extremely lively (though on occasion excessively fierce) performances by the Akademie fur Alte Musik, Georg Kallweit contributing a beautiful violin solo in the well-known Concerto RV565.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2011

“Chandler is an impeccably stylish soloist in two violin concertos. Throughout, he also directs La Serenissima in eloquently precise but excitingly spontaneous performances of unfailingly imaginative music” Sunday Times, 5th July 2009 ***

“In the flamboyant double-dots of the C-minor concerto, the melancholy groundbass of the G-minor concerto and the delicious closing Chaconne of the C-major, the playing is consistently zestful. Chandler, flautist Katy Bircher and bassoonist Peter Whelan play a further series of exacting concertos with the effortless musicality of birds.” The Independent on Sunday, 25th July 2009

“…the three solo instruments come and go in various combinations, always pleasing us and never outstaying their welcome. They are played with skill and taste… The orchestral sound, as always with La Serenissima, achieves bright attractiveness and vivacity without feeling the need to pursue the taut energy of some other groups. And that's just fine.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2009

“The performances… are typically neatly-pointed and vivacious.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2009 ****

“Here's a very attractively prepared menu whose main course is the Stabatmater for countertenor and strings.
Hors-d'oeuvres and side-dishes consist of a ripieno concerto (RV114), a chamber cantata for countertenor and strings (RV684), a string sonata in E flat (RV130) and an introductory motet to a lost Miserere (RV638). Taken together, the pieces demonstrate something of Vivaldi's diverse style as a composer.
The chamber cantata, if closely related to the two sacred vocal items on the disc in respect of tonal colour, differs from them in character.
Conforming with the standard Italian cantata pattern at the time of two pairs of alternating recitative and da capo aria Vivaldi enlivens his pastoral idyll with two particularly affecting arias, the first with a palpitating pizzicato violin, the second a virtuoso vocal tour de force illustrating the plight of the forsaken lover. Andreas Scholl brings the whole thing off superbly with only a moment's faulty intonation at the close of the first aria. Unlike settings of the Stabat mater by Pergolesi and others, Vivaldi used only the first 10 of the 20 stanzas of the poem. His deeply expressive setting of the poem will be familiar to many readers, but few will have heard such an affecting performance as Scholl achieves here.
The lyrical prayer of human yearning for faith contained in the 'Fac ut ardeat' movement is tenderly sung and here, as throughout the programme, sympathetically supported by Ensemble 415 under Chiara Banchini's experienced direction.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“…without a soloist, the spotlight is completely on the orchestra, which is lithe, colourful, virtuosic… the enjoyment emanating from the players is palpable, and why this brightly-recorded disc has waited three years to be issued is a complete mystery.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2006 *****

“This collection draws from Vivaldi's 'Concerti per archi', concertos for strings and continuo without the flamboyant writing for solo instruments found in the majority of the Red Priest's orchestral works. Across 68 minutes Vivaldi seems to have a seemingly inexhaustible arsenal of tricks, but it's never merely superficial. All the music on offer here is unmistakably Vivaldian: although there is common ground in many of these 'concerti per archi', they contain a dazzling kaleidoscope of moods and textures.
Andrea Marcon directs vivid, strongly etched performances that often reach fiery intensity.
Things get off to a sizzling start with the precocious beginning of RV111a, and the opening Allegro of RV157 is a perfect illustration of Marcon's fondness for wonderfully incisive yet flowing continuo. But there are also notable moments of exquisite beauty, such as a gorgeously played Largo from RV127. The Adagio in RV121 is an evocative hushed moment graced with lovely theorbo playing. It is easy to notice the athleticism of the Venice Baroque Orchestra's vigorous playing of fast movements, yet it is equally significant that the group perform Vivaldi's slower music with tenderness.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010