One may agree that
Italy during the 17th and
18th century was the leading
music nation in Europe. Amongst Italy’s
most enlightened composers of this wonderful
period was Antonio Vivaldi. With hundreds
of compositions, baroque music found
through him its unique style. Also as
a stimulator for Bach and next generations,
Vivaldi influenced his contemporary
composers, who transcribed numerous
of his instrumental compositions for
keyboard. Vivaldi was certainly the
creator of the ‘baroque concerto’ and
evidently esteemed the importance of
nice and simple melody in his compositions.
Somehow Stravinsky’s comment ‘Vivaldi
is very much overestimated, a boring
man who could compose one and the same
concerto six hundred times running’
seems out of place and not only for
baroque music lovers.
Using as a guide Bach’s
and Walther’s own transcriptions of
Vivaldi’s concertos for organ, the organist
Francesco Tasini ‘presents in this CD
his own transcriptions, arrangements
and ‘reductions’ for organ of a series
of celebrated concertos by Antonio Vivaldi’.
The art of transcription declined throughout
most of the 20th century.
Only at the end of this period was there
a new interest in this unique test of
musical art and skill.
As Tasini writes in
the booklet’s notes ‘we think that times
have by now sufficiently matured in
matters of both knowledge of the repertoire
and of stylistic evaluation to warrant
a return to this practice, not so much
with the intention of following faithfully
the historical prototypes as much as
revitalizing their artistic value’.
Even if it is a comment that not necessarily
everybody agrees with, at least there
is a certain curiosity to see how smart
and artistic the transcriber can be.
Tasini’s transcriptions
are very successful as they succeed
in conveying the beauty and mastery
of these concertos to the organ. Some
of them especially, sound as if they
were written originally for the instrument.
Another positive point
is that Tasini’s performances are very
clear – especially in the hands - with
nice articulation and variety in the
playing of the ornamentation. Also the
selection of the registration is successful
and interesting, with an eye to variety
... as far the organ permits. The organ
is ‘in the Silbermann style’ and sounds
very interesting indeed but a choice
of another bigger organ would have been
more successful.
What is missing though,
is the spontaneity of the performer
and the flow of the music. Tasini chooses
a playing style that goes to the far
end of metronomic playing, i.e. it has
too much freedom and over-accentuation,
almost in every bar and especially at
the harmonic changes. His freedom in
rhythm becomes distracting and almost
sounds rhythmically wrong; i.e. track
1: (1.05) and (2.56), track 3 the following
sequence: (1.22, 1.28, 1.33, 1.44),
track 5: (2.26, 2.30) to mention but
a few. Also his over-accentuation cuts
the flow of the music and makes the
music very predictable. Tasini’s playing
reveals all the secret of the music
and leaves no surprises for the listener.
His allegro tempi are always somewhat
slow; sounding as if the work is being
taken at practice tempo (track 9).
Between tracks 8 and
11, the order of the selection may leave
you feeling bored. Also the concerto
in Re maggiore is out of place as only
the grave (track 11) is here, which
is, by the way, in re minor. The listener
is however repaid by the last concerto
in Sol minore; it is the most interesting
of them all; a concerto of captivating
harmony and rhythm. For the slow movements
he uses only 16’ at the pedal; a pity
as it sounds later than the part for
the hands. This could of course be excused
by the limitation of organ stops.
As the American musicologist
Alfred Einstein wrote about Vivaldi’s
music: ‘it’s as if doors and windows
of a baroque hall were thrown open and
one were greeted by fresh air’. Tasini
succeeded through his transcriptions
in opening the windows and doors of
a baroque hall. Strangely enough what
he did not succeed in doing was to bring
the fresh air in.
Christina Antoniadou
Francesco Tasini (Organ) 
