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GRAMOPHONE (01/2022)
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Delphian
DCD34249



Code barres / Barcode : 801918342493

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Reviewer:  Lindsay Kemp

There’s a slight but clear danger to the part-misquote of Macbeth (intentional or otherwise) in the subtitle of this recording: that ‘fire and fury’ will call forth a subversive ‘signifying nothing’. But although it would be going too far to accuse the violin concertos presented here of that, they certainly are not the most profound products of the Baroque. And while there may be ‘fire’ in the virtuoso violin-writing, in the two Vivaldi works one cannot help thinking that it is the ‘sound’ of a violin concerto we are listening to rather than a piece with the true Vivaldi inspirational spark.

But then it is that overt virtuosity – and more specifically the rising presence of the violin as an instrument to deliver it – which provides the real context for the programme, giving it not just atmosphere but also historical perspective. To hear Vivaldi filling his unashamed showpieces with push-me-higher stratospherics, machine-like bariolage, wide leaps and interchangeable cadenzas, all stretched over rather basic orchestral support, is to witness the violin really grabbing the stage as a concerto soloist for the first time, even if only in a circus act. In his wake, Tartini summons a much more lyrical, graceful and poetic creation, its virtuosity reined in and directed towards expression; and Locatelli produces a work of confident structural strength and interest, despite what seem at first the absurdities of its very long cadenzas (or ‘capriccios’ as the composer called them), but which somehow feel more a part of the music than in the Vivaldi. It is not hard to hear how each of these composers’ differing approaches helped shape the violin concerto for generations to come.

The Illyria Consort are a single-strings band here but provide a pleasing and lightly transparent orchestral sound where others might have sought something more aggressively beefed up. The continuo section make some telling interventions in the Vivaldi when the going gets thin and are splendid on their own at the beginning of the Locatelli. Soloist-director Bojan Ci∂ic´ sounds comfortable with the music’s daunting technical demands, maintaining its dignity and poise with virtuosity both controlled and humane. One couldn’t really call this release fiery but it does have a winning sweetness of heart.

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