About this Artist

• Biography

Editorial Reviews

Until recently, conventional wisdom had it that Antonio Vivaldi, being a man of his times and in the front line of musical style, would never have employed viols in his compositions. Those fretted cousins to the violin and its family of instruments were rather antiquated by the composer's time. Well, after a little archival sleuthing, it turns out that conventional wisdom had it wrong: Vivaldi did indeed call for viols in some of the music he penned for his students at the Ospedale della Pieta, the Venetian orphanage where he was maestro. The key was the interpretation of the term "viola Inglese," which appears in the titles of a handful of Vivaldi works and, as recent research suggests, signifies viol. Rising to the call of this newfound knowledge, veteran violist Jordi Savall and his Concert des Nations have put together this delightful Vivaldi program, collecting seven compositions that here incorporate the silvery sound of the viol. Three works are concertos that explicitly call for the long-misunderstood "viola Inglese": a lively one in A Major, a more sober "Funeral" Concerto in B-flat with muted oboes, and a charming D major Concerto for "molti istromenti" -- a potpourri of flutes, oboes, trumpets, harpsichords, and strings. Four other concertos that originally employed cellos have been supplied with violas da gamba in their stead, following the example of the earlier A Major Concerto. Three of those come from the well-known Op. 3 collection called L'estro armonico, and a fourth bears the puzzling title Proteus, or the World Turned Upside Down. (Translation: A musical joke referring to Vivaldi's playful mixing-up of the notation of the solo parts. In other words, it's seen but not heard.) Savall and company are their usual sprightly selves, and their new take on Vivaldi offers typically attractive packaging and clear, full sound. EJ Johnson, Barnes & Noble

Customer Reviews

• Listener Rating: