'No, not the "Vivaldi Vespers", nor even a reconstruction of a specific event, but a kind of "sacred concert" in Vespers form, of the sort that Venetian churches in Vivaldi’s time – ever aware of the power of music to swell a congregation – were wont to mount in the name of worship. Soloists, Concerto Italiano / Rinaldo Alessandrini Vespri Solenni per la Festa dell'Assunzione di Maria Vergine The orchestral sound, as always with La Serenissima, achieves bright attractiveness and vivacity without feeling the need to pursue the taut energy of some other groups. They are played with skill and taste, lapsing only when the bassoon overpowers the flute in the slow movement of RV438. The Siciliana variation (7’00”) is especially refreshing.'Here the three solo instruments come and go in various combinations, always pleasing us and never outstaying their welcome. In the opening track of the album, “La Follia,” one never tires of hearing variations on the same sixteen-bar phrase, Schayegh imbuing each with a new mood. In the Largos and Adagios, her embellishments are expressive and sit comfortably among a longstanding Baroque tradition. Short, fast quarter notes vibrate with appropriately subtle vibrato. In the allegros, Schayegh’s phrases are long and not interrupted by the demands of the bow or position shifts. A Baroque specialist who studied, along with the rest of Musica Fiorita’s musicians, at the Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland, her playing is remarkably smooth and inventive.
Schayegh’s playing deserves quite a bit of praise as well. The autumnal hunt (track 10) is the perfect balance of jaunty and refined, which is to say, the ensemble has perfectly balanced staccato and legato attacks. The eighth rests in the first movement (track 5) feel like eternities, as if the heat is so oppressive that the group can barely bring themselves to play the next pair of notes, and the ensuing thunderstorm (track 7) is no less convincing. The group’s Summer is one of the most languorous available, as they imagine themselves out of breath and exhausted.
0 kommentar(er)
