Vivaldi: Oboe Concerto in F major, RV455

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.”