5 stars Another triumph!
By Morten Fuglestad
The first volume of Concerti per molti strumenti (called Concerti per mandolinio) was a real knock-out. This second volume will prove that there is a lot more Vivaldi to discover.
The first concerto of this CD is a Concerto a 10 V in D. The recorded sound is excellent and the majestical slow opening with horns and timpani will get the hairs on your arms to stand stright up!
The slow movements (an alternate second movement with solo organ is also present) are both heartrendering and conveyes the impression of entering an mini-opera without words.
The D minor concerto (RV566)for 2 violins, 2 recorders, 2 oboes and bassoon is also breathtaking. It is probably also written for the Saxon court as many of the other concertos on the first volume.
The other concertos are also so full of masterly music that it is difficult to single out the peaks.
Special mention should perhaps be taken of the concerto for viola damore and lute in D minor (RV540) with Fabio Biondi and Giangiacomo Pinardi. This is a concerto that makes extreme demands on articulation (in Harnoncourts sense of the word) and the absense of the heavy basso continuo in all but a few ritornelli makes this true chamber music. The concerto brims full of melancholy and despair. Biondi and Pinardi shades and lightens the music with keen and expressive outburst. In the wrong hands I suspect that this concerto could be a little too pedestrian, but in the hands of a true master it is revealed to be perhaps the best concerto Vivaldi ever wrote (listening to it while Im writing this this seems to be an understatement - it is really beyond words...).