Naïve have selected sixteen reference recordings
from their back catalogue and re-packaged them (at budget price) as
recordings that make a good way into their repertoire. They’re
marketed as
La Collection and you’ll find a full list of
the discs
here.
If this
Four Seasons re-release is anything to go by then they’ve
got the packaging just about right. The slim-line case contains a fold-out
leaflet with a brief introduction to the music, a glossary of musical
terms and a collection of other information to make you feel at home
in the music. There’s some historical context about Vivaldi’s
life, some things to listen out for and suggestions for further listening.
In this disc they also published the complete sonnets that the composer
(probably) wrote to accompany the concertos. It’s all very accessible
and so makes this a good recording with which to introduce someone to
the works.
The performances themselves are very good and well worth revisiting.
The notes inform me that this was Europa Galante’s first recording
and that with it Fabio Biondi was one of the very first to reinstate
the number of performers that Vivaldi would most likely have had at
his disposal, together with period instruments and historically informed
performance practice. In many ways the disc still sounds fresh and newly
minted. The buoyancy of
Spring and
Autumn, and the generally
upbeat speeds are refreshing and the playing is never less than excellent.
As with all these things, however, the innovative eventually becomes
the new orthodoxy and what struck me most forcefully is just how widely
Europa Galante’s style has now been adopted by other groups. This
may have been fresh in 1991, but it’s now pretty much the new
norm for Vivaldi. To my ears, then, these recordings actually struck
me as fairly “safe” and unscary. Perhaps that’s a
tribute to the scale of Biondi’s achievement, though. Only in
Winter do they really seem daring, with violin playing that has
an audacious sense of vibrato and an exciting ability to use tone colour
to evoke a landscape. Still, that makes them all the more recommendable
for the newcomer. Both as a document of performance practice and as
a worthwhile musical experience, this disc still stands up very well.
Simon Thompson
