Il Giardino Armonico - Vivaldi: Concerti da Camera, Vol. 3 (1993)

Vivaldi's chamber concertos have everything that lovers of Vivaldi love in Vivaldi: the instrumental colors, the melodic invention, the breathtaking atmosphere in the slow movements, the irresistible verve and exuberant drive in the fast ones. Because they are "da camera" (chamber) doesn't mean they are small-scale or "Tafelmusik" suitable as background music for mealtimes. They are fully-fledged Vivaldi concertos, and most feature the recorder as solo instrument, either alone or with oboe, bassoon and/or violin (all three in some). But volume 3 opens with the extraordinary Concerto RV 97 for viola d'amore, two oboes, two hunting horns, bassoon and continuo, and it also features RV 93, an extraordinary concerto for lute. Music has produced endless and extraordinary beauties before and since, and I'd want to part with none, but when I hear the slow movement of that concerto, I wish for nothing more. Volume 1 has the famous Flute Concertos opus 10, of which RV 90 is scored for flauto sopranino, oboe, violin, bassoon and basso continuo. Volume 2 offers the bonus of the "Follia" variations, Sonata opus 1 RV 63 for two violins and continuo.

But it's not just the music, mind you. Il Giardino armonico: they are simply IN-CRE-DI-BLE. Their very 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 and Vivaldi: Concerti da Camera / Il Giardino Armonico, reissued on Concerti Da Camera or Concerti Da Camara with another recital by the ensemble). It was already excellent, but in this recording of the complete concertos, made between 1990 and 1992, they go even further, and wilder. Not only are they afforded stupendous sonic presence (kudos sound engineer Lucienne Rosset), the hurl into the music with an explosive enthusiasm, it is a tornado running through your hair. I've done some comparative listening on the two most famous Concertos of opus 10, La Notte and La Tempesta di Mare, using the classic 1979 version of Frans Brüggen and the recordings of Concerto Köln, Marion Verbrüggen and (from 1999) Fabio Biondi's L'Europa Galante (for more on that, see my reviews of Concerti: La Tempesta Di Mare / La Notte and of volume 1, link at the end); all these are fine and excellent and appealing, and Concerto Köln is even better than that, and Biondi is even better than Concerto Köln - until you hear Il Giardino, that is. No-one, not even Biondi, has appraoched this degree of fury, this level of excitement, this range and imagination of instrumental colors. Some variations in the Follia Sonata sound like machine-gun shots. These works don't sound "chamber" in the least, not in this recording. It is unbelievable the wealth of colors Vivaldi and Il Giardino are able to draw and the excitement they are able to generate from recorder, oboe and bassoon, and not even the underpinning of a continuo (Concerto RV 103, volume 2 tracks 5-7), or the poetry they are able to elicit simply from recorder with ticking arpeggios from the accompanying lute and repeated notes from bassoon, in the slow movement of RV 94, volume 3 track 6, and likewise in the slow movement of RV 106 (volume 3 track 9), with its basso "hum-dum" tossed between bassoon and violin. So simple, so effective. 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 (volume 2 track 12), with its dialogue of lute and voluble bassoon. And the volubility of the bassoon in all the fast movements is irresistible. 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.