Editorial Reviews

Igor Stravinsky, in possibly his most uncharitable moment, once said of Antonio Vivaldi that he wrote the same concerto 500 times. Well, here's Essential Vivaldi, another in the popular series from Decca and Deutsche Grammophon, with a two-disc line-up that seems to say, "Nuts to Stravinsky!" There are many fewer than 500 concertos here, naturally, but there are quite a few nonetheless, including some very well-known ones. And listening to them, one gets above all a sense of Vivaldi's playful imagination as well as the whimsy and sheer enthusiasm in his music. Try the G Major Mandolin Concerto, for one, to sample some delicate finery Vivaldi-style, or take in the C Major Two-Trumpet Concerto for a bit of Baroque swagger. Then there's the D Major Flute Concerto, "Il Gardellino" -- a lovely piece of pure pastoral enchantment. DG has done a nice job selecting works that highlight a broad variety of instruments. The series of concertos that make up The Four Seasons are included, of course -- along with other concertos for violin -- yet there are also works for guitar, mandolin, flute, cello, oboe, and trumpet, as well as a few for orchestra alone. Three excerpts serve to represent the famous choral Gloria, but most works come in their entirety -- unusual for a compilation like this. And there are some familiar performers: soloists Maurice André (who plays both parts of the Two-Trumpet Concerto), Heinz Holliger, and Pepe Romero; conductors Riccardo Chailly, Sir Neville Marriner, and Trevor Pinnock, among others. The sound quality varies from piece to piece, but all told, it's quite a Vivaldi fan's delight. EJ Johnson, Barnes & Noble

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