Vivaldi: Bassoon Concerto, RV 477 in C major

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.

As part of the successful Vivaldi Edition, Naïve’s ‘Concerti per fagotto’ is one of the rarely recorded versions of Vivaldi’s Concertos for bassoon and the first dedicated to this period instrument within this collection.

This recording features a selection of the finest works for bassoon composed in the baroque music period. Vivaldi is the most significant composer ever of bassoon concertos with his own oeuvre including 39 concertos for the instrument.

Sergio Azzolini is a multi-prize winner at many international events. He is acclaimed for his recordings with major European orchestras and is a successful soloist with leading early music ensembles all over Europe. Azzolini is particularly familiar with Vivaldi’s works. As a conductor, he mounted two unpublished Venetian operas including Vivaldi’s La fida ninfa and worked on two other releases within the Vivaldi Edition. ‘Concerti per fagotto’ is a rigorous new edition of Vivaldi’s work which is careful to preserve all the details found in the original manuscripts from the Venetian composer.