Martino Noferi, Ottaviano Tenerani, Il Rossignolo - Vivaldi: Concerti a violino & organo obligati - Sonate per flauto diritto & basso (2012)

Tracklist

01. Concerto for Violin, Organ and Cello in C Major, RV 554a: I. (Allegro)
02. Concerto for Violin, Organ and Cello in C Major, RV 554a: II. (Largo)
03. Concerto for Violin, Organ and Cello in C Major, RV 554a: III. Allegro
04. Concerto for Violin and Organ in D Minor, RV 541: I. Allegro
05. Concerto for Violin and Organ in D Minor, RV 541: II. Grave
06. Concerto for Violin and Organ in D Minor, RV 541: III. Allegro molto
07. Recorder Sonata in F Major, RV 52: I. —
08. Recorder Sonata in F Major, RV 52: II. Allemanda
09. Recorder Sonata in F Major, RV 52: III. Aria di Giga (After RV 1 and RV 192a)
10. Concerto for Violin and Organ in F Major, RV 542: I. (Allegro)
11. Concerto for Violin and Organ in F Major, RV 542: II. (Largo)
12. Concerto for Violin and Organ in F Major, RV 542: III. Allegro
13. Concerto for Violin and Organ in C Minor, RV 766: I. Allegro
14. Concerto for Violin and Organ in C Minor, RV 766: II. Largo
15. Concerto for Violin and Organ in C Minor, RV 766: III. Allegro
16. Recorder Sonata in D Minor: I. Andante
17. Recorder Sonata in D Minor: II. Allegro
18. Recorder Sonata in D Minor: III. Largo
19. Recorder Sonata in D Minor: IV. Allegro
20. Concerto for Violin and Organ in F Major, RV 767: I. Allegro
21. Concerto for Violin and Organ in F Major, RV 767: II. Larghetto
22. Concerto for Violin and Organ in F Major, RV 767: III. Allegro

Bringing together Vivaldi's concertos for violin, organ, and orchestra is a good idea - as director, organist, and annotator Ottaviano Tenerani points out, these early works may have been the first concertos to feature a keyboard instrument in a solo role. If you like piano concertos, thank Vivaldi for them, as well as for so much else. Unfortunately, this release is riddled with problems. Before even beginning to play the disc, radio programmers should note that the timings on the back cover bear little relationship with the actual track lengths - some are too long, some are too short. Track 9, the aria di giga from the Sonata for recorder (flauto diritto) and continuo in F major, RV 52, is only about 35 seconds long, not the 2:27 given here. The bad news continues at the beginning of the disc, with a weird 10-second gap before the music starts. The solo recorder player is left uncredited - probably a good thing, for he or she takes a big, noisy breath before each phrase. And, on the album-wide scale, the performers make the odd decision to play the orchestral parts with one instrument per part. The one-voice-per-part mode of performing Baroque choral music may be defensible, but the concerto depends on contrast between different parts of an ensemble. Here we get a mushy mix of seemingly random instrumental entrances. Finding all the violin-and-organ works together is a bit difficult, but singly they show up in various places - Ottavio Dantone has recorded the RV 541 concerto on a wonderful disc of sacred concertos with soprano Sandrine Piau, In furore, Laudate pueri e concerti sacri.

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