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Vivaldi: Soloists, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Choir; Sydney City Recital Hall Angel Place, Sydney 15. 5.2009 (ZT)

Vivaldi: Gloria RV 589; Four Seasons RV 269, 315, 293 and 297

The Sydney City Recital Hall was filled to capacity for the first of seven all-Vivaldi recitals to be repeated 15-23 May. The two programmed items were Gloria, RV 589 and the Four Seasons - with a twist

The Brandenburg Choir never fails to deliver and their performance in Gloria was as dynamic and full of impact as that in Mozart’s Requiem, featured in the last series of recitals. The fine voices of Belinda Montgomery (soprano) and Fiona Campbell (mezzo) were complementary and make one proud of the considerable talent to be found in Australia.

It may be that in a recording environment it is easier electronically to control the balance between musicians and choir. On occasions the thirty-strong choir rather overwhelmed the violins making the latter’s contributions inaudible, even from a good vantage point within the hall.

For music that remained forgotten for almost a century, the Four Seasons has more than made up for lost time. The programme notes indicate the existence of more than four hundred commercial recordings and a popularity that peaked in the late 1980s with an average of nineteen new versions appearing each year.

On this occasion the solo violin was replaced with recorder. Genevieve Lacey is a highly respected, accomplished musician and the ideal choice for such an undertaking. The programme notes also refer to the common practice among Baroque composers of re-arranging their works for alternative instruments. It is also suggested that ‘played on the recorder the solo episodes stand out against the orchestral string texture and the instrument’s soft gentle sound is particularly effective in the purely representational movements, such as the bird calls in Spring’.

After listening to the four concertos I was reminded of a re-arrangement of another piece of violin music - the Brahms Violin Concerto in D major. Arranged for orchestra-guitar and played by the Japanese virtuoso Kazuhito Yamashita, the musicianship and technical virtuosity displayed are quite amazing. Despite this and whatever accolades one may wish to assign, relative to the original, it is no more than a musical curiosity.

Genevieve Lacey executed her part with significant empathy for the music and outstanding virtuosity. She used several different recorders to add variety and texture to her rendition but unfortunately her instruments were frequently overwhelmed by the orchestra. It became increasingly impossible to erase the subliminal sound of Nils-Eric Sparf’s violin from a particularly favoured version of this music.

It is important to remain open-minded with respect to all new adventures in music lest a gem be missed. This arrangement of the Four Seasons appeals in the same light as the aforementioned arrangement of Brahms’ Violin Concerto: a very entertaining musical adventure.

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