Antonio VIVALDI (1678-1741)
Bassoon Concerto in A minor, RV497 [9:55]
Bassoon Concerto in B flat minor ‘La notte’ RV501 [8:45]
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Sonata in A major (transcribed by Václav Vonášek
from Flute Sonata in E major), BWV 1035 [11:43]
Georg Frideric HANDEL (1685-1759)
Dopo notte; aria from Ariodante, HWV33 (transcribed by
Václav Vonášek) [6:46]
Carl Philipp Emanuel BACH (1714-1788)
Sonata in D minor for Bassoon solo (transcribed by Mordechai Rechtman
from the Flute Sonata in A minor) [9:20]
Václav Vonášek (bassoon)
Barocco sempre giovane
rec. June 2011, Knights Hall of the Pardubice Chateau
SUPRAPHON SU4124-2 [46:58]
Barocco sempre giovane is a small historically informed
performance ensemble (or Original Instrumentation if you’re old
fashioned) which lines up 2-1-1-1 and virginal. It’s performed
extensively in the Czech Republic and across Europe since 2004, and
has made a number of recordings. For this Supraphon disc the group supports
bassoonist Václav Vonášek who was born in 1980 in
Southern Bohemia and studied successively in Plzeň and Prague,
later winning competitions which culminated in the 2009 Prague Spring
prize. He’s currently bassoonist and double-bassoonist in the
Czech Philharmonic.
The programme centres on two concertos for bassoon by Vivaldi and adds
three transcriptions, two of which are by Vonášek. He’s
an agile and stylistically apt performer with an attractive tone throughout
the instrument’s compass. There’s also a well-judged balance
between the solo and accompanying instruments in both concertos, not
least when the strings thin in the slow movement of the A minor in their
discreet support of the solo line. The drowsy Largo introduction
to the B minor, ‘La notte’, is well conveyed as is the increasingly
dramatic phantasm of the faster succeeding movement. So, too, the placid
dream of the slow movement. This ingenious concerto brings out the best
in the group and soloist; well characterised and projected, but not
overdone. Atmospheric stasis sounds good in their performance and the
joys of the sun’s rays in the finale equally so.
It’s appropriate I suppose, given the title of the B minor concerto
that the bassoonist has transcribed the aria Dopo notte from
Handel’s Ariodante. It’s a nice showcase for the
bassoon but the relative immobility of the instrument necessarily causes
a lag of momentum. He has also transcribed JS Bach’s Flute Sonata
in E major, BWV 1035 as an A major Bassoon sonata. It’s played
with fine technical assurance and also lyrical introspection. The Siciliano
is the work’s heart and this is well conveyed. Mordechai Rechtman
transcribed CPE Bach’s Flute Sonata in A minor which emerges newly
conveyed as a solo Bassoon Sonata in D minor. There are high and sepulchral,
low dialogues here in a performances that strongly conveys a youthful
charge.
These crisp, well recorded performances augur well for the group’s
collaboration with Supraphon.
Jonathan Woolf
