Il Giardino Armonico - Vivaldi: Concerti da Camera, Vol. 4 (1993)

Vivaldi's chamber concertos have everything that lovers of Vivaldi love in Vivaldi: the instrumental colors, the melodic invention, the atmosphere in the slow movements, the verve and the exuberant drive in the fast ones. Because they are "da camera" (chamber) doesn't mean they are small-scale or "Tafelmusik", background music suitable for meal-time. They are fully-fledged Vivaldi concertos, each with one or two predominant instrument assuming the role of soloist; the recorder is in fact featured in most; in this volume 2 it is joined in some concertos by oboe, by oboe and bassoon, or violin and bassoon, and all three in RV 95 "La Pastorella". The concertos don't sound "chamber" in the least, not in this recording. It is unbelievable the wealth of colors Vivaldi is able to draw and the excitement he is able to generate from recorder, oboe and bassoon, and not even the underpinning of a continuo (Concerto RV 103, tracks 5-7). In fact the lean textures of the chamber ensemble let you revel even more than in Vivaldi's "big" concertos in the pleasures of timbral color; just try the opening of the slow movement of RV 100 (track 12), with its dialogue of lute and voluble bassoon. And the volubility of the bassoon in the fast movements is irresistible.

Il Giardino Armonico's first disc, in 1988, not yet on Teldec, was already a selection of those chamber concertos, recorded for Nuova Era (see my review of Antonio Vivaldi: Chamber Concertos - RV103 / RV105 / RV107 / RV101 / RV98 "La Tempesta di Mare" / RV86 - Il Giardino Armonico or Vivaldi: Concerti da Camera / Il Giardino Armonico, reissued on Concerti Da Camera or Concerti Da Camara with another recital of Italian Sonatas by the ensemble). It was already excellent, but this recording of the complete concertos, made between 1990 and 1992, is even better: they have marginally more bite, drive and color. It also has stupendous sonic presence. Some variations in the Follia Sonata sound like machine-gun shots. I don't know if that's the way they played it in Vivaldi's time, but I sure am happy that it is the way they play it now.

And it's not even that I can recommend particularly one volume from the four as a "best" introduction. All these compositions are so exhilaratingly entertaining, it's like Scarlatti's Sonatas: if Vivaldi had composed 550 of them, I'd still be telling you to listen to all of them: each offers its rewards.