Boston Baroque and Martin Pearlman - Vivaldi: Gloria in D Major, RV 589 - Bach: Magnificat in D Major, BWV 243 (2006)

Intimidating numbers of choices await the listener looking for a recording of either Bach's Magnificat, Vivaldi's Gloria, RV 589, or, as often happens, both together on one disc. This well-recorded Telarc release, however, presents a distinctive and perhaps even unprecedented set of forces: the two works are performed on period instruments, but the medium-sized (about 25 singers) vocal ensemble (the Boston Baroque includes both players and singers as needed) has a full, straightforward but well-blended American civic chorus sound. The combination generally works well under the direction of Martin Pearlman, who favors very quick tempos in the fast movements and sharp articulation of individual notes for both the instrumentalists and the chorus, which has obviously been drilled within an inch of its life. Vivaldi's festive, welcoming octaves at the beginning of the Gloria come out as sharp, jittery stabs of sound, which is not going to be to everyone's taste. The advantages of Pearlman's style, however, are apparent in polyphonic sections such as Vivaldi's concluding "Cum sancto spiritu" fugue and many of the choral passages of the Magnificat, where dense textures are executed with both transparency and energy. The soloists, one might say, are of the world of the chorus rather than of that of the instruments; they have large, rather operatic voices with lots of vibrato. Telarc is known for delivering sonically exciting, precise recordings of choral music, and engineer Jack Renner is not thrown by the presence of period instruments here; all the forces are in balance and heard clearly. The interpretations here are idiosyncratic in spots, but for those in tune with them they strike a good middle-American path between traditional and historically oriented performances.