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Tag Archives: Vivaldi

Living with Vivaldi

02 Monday Mar 2015

Posted by Roger H. Boulet in classical music, Uncategorized

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baroque music, bassoon concerto, Vivaldi

The first time I heard some music by Vivaldi was when I was about 15 years old. It was his Concerto for Two Trumpets, Strings and Continuo in C major, RV 537. I remember it was on a 10-inch 33 1/3 rpm record with a blue label. That was 56 years ago! Since then, if there has been one composer who has accompanied me all these years, it was Vivaldi (with Tchaikovsky a close second). All the others came later along the way.

MI0003129059When I first started buying records in my teens, I was a member of the Columbia Record Club, and I recall purchasing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons played by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. These were a revelation to me, and way back then, Vivaldi was certainly not heard that often. Apparently the recording has been re-issued, but I have moved on since those days, and prefer my baroque music played on instruments true to the period.

leonard_bernstein_vivaldiI think the second Vivaldi recording I bought was one with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. It had a concerto for diverse instruments with two mandolins, one  concerto for oboe, one for flute and one for piccolo.  The concerto for diverse instruments was particularly appealing, although by hindsight one shudders at Bernstein’s use of a trumpet in the place of the tromba marina (a stringed instrument).

rca_lsc-2353_smallMy third Vivaldi purchase was an RCA recording of Vivaldi Bassoon Concerti, which I enjoyed tremendously, especially a concerto in F (RV 485) with its little ritornello in the third movement. This was the beginning of a lifelong love for Vivaldi’s Bassoon Concerti. I own a couple of complete sets on CD, and am avidly collecting a third, performed my Sergio Azzolini and  the players of L’Aura Soave on the Naïve label.

Over the past 50 years, Vivaldi has become a household name for classical music lovers, and a great deal of his music has been recorded, including operas, sacred music and many, many, many concerti. It seems that throughout these 50 years, I have bought Vivaldi recordings, especially on CD and especially on instruments authentic to the period. I don’t think a week goes by without some Vivaldi.

As far as the Four Seasons are concerned, I think that the BIS recording with Nils-Erik Sparf and the Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble (BIS CD-275) is one of the best. The playing is delightful, sharp and crisp and the music sounds completely new. Other recordings have since been issued and been critically acclaimed, particularly the recordings by Europa Galante directed by Fabio Biondi, and by Il Giardino Armonico cnducted by Giovanni Antonini.

The Four Seasons are concerti for violin and string orchestra, although you will find them transcribed for almost any instrument now. They were part of the twelve concerti published as Vivaldi’s Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’invenzione, Op. 8. Other published collections were L’estro Armonico (op. 3) La cetra (Op. 9) and La stravaganza (Op. 4). All reward the listener.

But there are other concerti, usually grouped on recordings by the instruments they feature. There are six flute concerti grouped in Op. 10. There are about 25 cello concerti, and 37 bassoon concerti as well. Especially fascinating are the concerti for viola d’amore, for mandolins, and various groupings of instruments. These are best heard played by period instruments.

81iI-gzb0PL._SL1425_The best recording of the concerti for viola d’amore is by Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante. It contains seven concerti as well as the Concerto for viola d’amore and lute in D minor, RV 540. The viola d’amore is very attractive. It has six or seven strings and the sound is slightly nasal, as there are sympathetic strings that add a particular resonance. Also included here is a concerto in  F major (RV 97) for viola d’amore which strangely includes oboes, bassoons and hunting horns in its third movement. The effect is quite astonishing and evocative of a hunt.


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The same forces gives us the concerti for mandolins and concerti ‘con molti stromenti.’  There are two volumes. The first has three concerti for mandolins, and four for various combinations of instruments. The second also has seven concerti, one of them for the strange combination of solo violin, two hunting horns, 2 oboes, 2 violins, alto viola and bass as well as tympani, the latter a most unusual inclusion for Vivaldi. Both these albums are terrific.

Another favourite album is a Warner Bros. Elatus disc which features two trios and five concerti with various instrumental combinations. The players are Il Giardino Armonico, and their interpretations are nuanced and sensitive.

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Finally, a word about the bassoon concerti. At least three complete sets are available, but the best by far are those played by Sergio Azzolini and the ensemble L’aura soave of Cremona. I have always been very fond of the bassoon concerti, and certainly look forward to the remaining two albums to complete the collection. You can hear the complete album of the first set on YouTube.

The series (on Naïve label) also has some striking cover art. I can only suppose that the woodsy quality of the images somehow relates to the woodsy timbre of the baroque bassoon.

0709869022368_600Vivaldi’s spirited music is perfect in the morning, it is cheerful and sunny. There is a life-affirming quality about it which is sure to lift one’s spirits. As a listener of Stingray Music, part of our cable service, I get to hear quite a bit of Vivaldi on their Baroque channel and I continue to discover the music of his contemporaries too. There was something incredibly positive about the Baroque period, and certainly Vivaldi’s music epitomizes the period. I always bring a CD or two of Vivaldi’s music to play in the car when I am travelling. And they are also on my MP3 player. Perfect for the gym, for walking, or doing just about anything.

© Roger H. Boulet, 2015.

Note: The listener will find a lot of Vivaldi’s music on YouTube, and the CD’s are worth purchasing too. The sound is so much better!

The Dark Side of Winter

06 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by Roger H. Boulet in classical music

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Four Seasons, Glazunov, Schubert, Sibelius, Vivaldi, Winter

2015-01-05 -back forty in winter

Above the back property where we live is one of the oldest Summerland cemeteries where many of our town’s pioneers are buried. In every season, it reminds us to enjoy life while we can. The view seems particularly desolate in winter with snow on the ground, and the presence of the cemetery seems even more urgent. It is not a sight we dread at all. It has always appealed to my Romantic sensibilities.

friedrich - winter landscapeThis darker side of winter contrasts with the general cheerfulness of late 19th and early 20th century Canadian painting I discussed in a previous post (5 January 2015). Winter suggests death both as an inevitable end, but also as the harbinger of rebirth and renewal that spring brings. The painting above is Caspar David Friedrich’s Monastery Graveyard in the Snow (1819; 121 x 170 cm), one of the masterpieces at Berlin’s Nationalgalerie destroyed in 1945 during World War II. I am not sure that the colour seen here is what Friedrich painted. Usually it is seen only in black and white reproductions. The painting was a revision of his earlier (1810) Abbey in the Oakwood, and perhaps the added colouration is based on that work.

There is lots of symbolism in this painting and the various interpretations can be obtained online. The central theme of winter, however, is the one I wish to focus on here. And to my mind, there is no better expression of winter in the Romantic sensibility than Schubert’s Winterreise, written in 1827 a year before his death. It is a cycle of 24 songs based on poems by Wilhelm Müller (1794-1827). Schubert had used another collection of his poems in his song cycle entitled Die Schöne Müllerin (1823). What both cycles have in common are the themes of lost love, despair, sad and restless wandering (life) and a longing for release in death. This is exceptionally poignant music.  Translated texts for both cycles are available online. Performances of Winterreise are also available online, not the least of which is a very fine one with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau accompanied by pianist Gerald Moore. The piano accompaniments are quite extraordinary in themselves.

There are lighter pictorial descriptions of winter in music, of course, and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons come to mind. The last concerto is Winter, and there too, a sonnet accompanied the music, intended more as a guide for the performers. Then there Haydn’s oratorio, The Seasons, where Winter occupies the final part, opens with an instrumental depiction of thick fogs at the approach of winter. Images of desolation pervade the music, and the metaphor of the traveller is again used, wandering a desolate landscape, but relieved by the warmth of a country inn and its folk working at winter activities and telling stories by the fire. All this ends with a reflection on death which the death of nature in winter conjures up. The seasons are a metaphor for life on earth, and the just, affirms Haydn, are rewarded with everlasting life. The music ends with a joyous chorus.

Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1 in G minor, Op. 13, is named “Winter Daydreams.”  He was 26 years old when he wrote it, and by far the most evocative movement, as far as winter is concerned, is the second, which itself bears the title “Land of Desolation – Land of Mists.”  Alexander Glazunov’s ballet The Seasons was composed in 1899 and opens with “Winter,” a lovely piece with musical evocations of hoarfrost, ice, snow, etc.

My partner mentioned Chopin’s virtuosic Etude in A minor, Op. 25, No. 11, often called “Winter Wind,” which is most interesting. I had never heard it before. Another terrific piece is the “Winter Storms” waltz (Op. 184) by the Czech composer Julius Fučík. There is a driving energy to it which sounds a bit dangerous! It is one of my favourite waltzes, far more interesting than Waldteufel’s “Skaters” waltz!

I suppose when it comes to chilling music, Sibelius is the master. He seems to capture the bleak Finnish landscape which is so similar to the Canadian landscape, with its vast windswept forests. It seems a lot of Sibelius has that quality of sublime bleakness, but to my mind it is his tone poem Tapiola, Op. 112, composed in 1926, that is most chilling. (I have provided the link to Vänskä’s masterful performance.)

And for those who would like to acquire any of this music, you will find a very select discography at the bottom of this article. A good CD library is one of the great joys of my retirement.

© Roger H. Boulet, 2015

Discography:

Glazunov: The Seasons, Op. 67; Violin Concerto. Neeme Järvi conducting The Scottish National Orchestra.  Chandos CHAN-8596.

Haydn: The Seasons, Hob. XXI:3. John ELiot Gardiner conducts The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists. Archiv 431818-2.

Schubert: Winterreise, D 911, op. 89. Ernst Haefliger, tenor; Jörg Ewald Dähler, hammerflügel. Claves 50-8008/9

Sibelius: Symphonies No. 6 & 7; Tapiola. Osmo Vänskä conducting the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. BIS CD-864.

Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1 in G minor, Op. 13 “Winter Daydreams.” Marriss Jansons conducting the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Chandos CHAN 8402.

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons. Nils Erik Sparf, violin; Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble, BIS CD-275.

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