Sara Mingardo, Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini - Vivaldi: Concerti e Cantate (1997)

The recordings of the Concerto Italiano under its leader Rinaldo Alessandrini, such as this 1997 release, electrified the authentic-performance movement in Italy. Alessandrini showed that performances of Vivaldi on authentic instruments could be edgy, brisk, even tough. The group's ensemble work was unmatched, but perhaps best of all was its command of the Baroque repertory; programming has consistently featured unusual works that, in performances, sound like they've always been part of the tradition. Included here are three examples of perhaps the most-neglected segment of Vivaldi's vast concerto output: his concertos for strings with no solo instrument. These works, as annotator Michael Talbot points out, tend to include mixtures of old-fashioned and up-to-the-minute (or even fashion-forward) styles. One does not associate the name of Vivaldi with the fugue, but the first movement of the Concerto for strings and continuo in E minor, RV 134, is a suitably academic example. Other movements in the string concertos have the flirtatious quality of the galant style that Vivaldi in many instances anticipated. The strangest moment of all on the disc comes in the very last track, in the Concerto for strings and continuo in G major, RV 151, with its unresolved dominant sevenths. (The concerto is subtitled "alla rustica" and contains various effects suggestive of rural traditions; it is a cousin to similar works by Telemann and, more distantly, to Mozart's Musical Joke.) The disc also contains one concerto each for violin and cello and two short cantatas (each has two recitatives and two arias) for alto, strings, and continuo, sung very elegantly by Sara Mingardo. Vivaldi calibrates his vocal writing exquisitely to a space between the intimate solo cantata and the no-holds-barred display of operatic singing, and Mingardo rivets the attention in the revenge aria (track 17) that concludes the cantata Cessate, omai cessate. Alessandrini's musicians cut loose more on other recordings, but the clipped, rather tense language they speak here is appropriate to the subtly unusual works involved and to the variety of roles they are called upon to play. The bottom line: this disc is strongly recommended for anybody interested in exploring Vivaldi beyond the famous Four Seasons.