Vivaldi: Oboe Concerto in A minor, RV463

Italian oboist, Alfredo Bernardini, records seven of Vivaldi’s oboe concertos for the Vivaldi Edition with his versatile ensemble Zefiro.

Three of the concertos on this CD [RV 455, 463, 453] were originally recorded in 1994 for the label Astrée. Their interpretation has remained exemplary and they are as exhilarating today as they were when first heard. For this reason these have been included in the Vivaldi Edition along with four newly recorded oboe concertos. Alfredo Bernardini has taken part in some 100 recordings. Among these is an earlier album featuring Vivaldi oboe concertos which received a Cannes Classical Award in 1995. In 1999 he made a documentary on Vivaldi with Zefiro for Belgian television. Accompanying Bernardini is Zefiro, his versatile ensemble specialising in 18th-century repertoire that gives particular prominence to wind instruments.

This new hybrid SACD features a selection of Vivaldi’s concertos for oboe, strings, and continuo. The soloist is one of the most accomplished young performers on the European scene at the moment, Pauline Oostenrijk. She has already released two recordings through Challenge Classics, most recently a collection of 20th century pieces entitled “Oboesession”, (CC72062).

In 1999 Pauline Oostenrijk received the Music Prize of The Netherlands, the highest State Award for classical music. Before that, she had already won numerous prizes on national and international competitions. Her activities as a soloist and chamber musician were recorded on a number of highly acclaimed CDs. She plays recitals with pianist Ivo Janssen, and performs regularly with her sister, soprano Nienke Oostenrijk, in the Ensemble Oostenrijk-Jansen (with cembalo-player David Jansen and cellist Maarten Jansen). She is a member of the Orlando Wind Quintet and the ensemble Nieuw Amsterdams Peil. Several composers have dedicated works to her, among them Louis Andriessen.

In Vivaldi's time there was an orphan girl named Pelegrina who spent most of her life at the Pio Ospedale della Pietà. Pelegrina was by far the most accomplished oboist when Vivaldi worked at the Ospedale (the only other oboist mentioned in the archives is one Susanna, in 1726), we can assume that a number of the oboe concertos featured on this CD were also written for, and performed by, Pelegrina.

The astonishing Alex Klein, among the world’s top oboists, performs eight surprisingly diverse concertos by one of everyone’s favorite Baroque composers. His colleagues on the recording are the New Brandenburg Collegium, led by American conductor, composer, and keyboard artist Anthony Newman.

This is a mid-priced CD reissue of an album originally released in 1995 (only) through the Musical Heritage Society.

Vivaldi’s oboe concertos “are in a class all their own,” Klein writes in the CD liner notes. They “exhibit technical demands that would not be seen again in the oboe repertory for another 100 years” and still challenge “even the best performers of our own day,” Klein writes.

When the original Musical Heritage Society release came out, Salt Lake City’s Deseret News declared, “Klein Really Clicks in Vivacious CD of Vivaldi Concertos… There is some gorgeous playing here, stylishly ornamented and beautifully floated, with a seemingly inexhaustible air supply.”

'My entire relation to music is such that I always try to go to the limits' (Heinz Holliger)

The artistry of Holliger (b.1939) prompted Evelyn Rothwell (Lady Barbirolli) to call him 'The Paganini of the oboe' Holliger's mastery of the oboe ranges over a vast expanse of repertoire, from the baroque to contemporary -- Bach to Berio and Zelenka to Zimmermann. His style is notable for its flexibility, agility, integrity and ability to communicate convincingly across the wide range of repertoire he performs. Holliger has done much to champion the oboe music of composers such as Zelenka and Krommer, and has also had over 100 works composed for him by composers including Berio, Carter, Henze, Ligeti, Lutoslawski, Penderecki and Stockhausen.

This 10CD collection provides a superb showcase for his artistry, spanning nearly 250 years of repertoire from the well known to the obscure, and to every one of the works here his unique and phenomenal technique to makes the interpretation sound effortless and flawless.

Other information

- Extensive booklet notes on each work, and a biographical essay on Holliger

- 'This is an enchanting performance: I do not believe that among modern recordings there is a better' Gramophone, November 1985 (Mozart Oboe Quartet)

A new addition to the very successful series of super-budget boxes.

A 28-CD set of Concertos, Sonatas and major vocal works by one of the most popular Baroque composers of all time.

Vivaldi's complete Concertos and Sonatas opus 1-12 plus other concertos and cantatas.

Performances drawn mainly from Decca's L'Oiseau-Lyre catalogue featuring the important ensemble/ conductor partnerships of Christopher Hogwood & the Academy of Ancient Music and Philip Pickett & the New London Consort as well as Andreas Scholl with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra in Nisi Dominus and Salve Regina