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| "A rave recommendation" |
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Reviewer: Jerry
Dubins In a September 11, 2015 interview for Strings magazine, Stephanie Powell interviewed Rachel Barton Pine about her then brand-new recording of Vivaldi’s complete concertos for viola d’amore. After “fiddling around” for a number of years on a modernized viola d’amore, Barton discloses that she finally decided to bid on a 1774 Gagliano viola d’amore at a Tarisio auction. “I wasn’t able to hear what it sounded like,” Pine says, “because it had been hanging on the walls of the shop since 1970-something,” adding that she had purchased a 1770 Nicola Gagliano Baroque violin in 2000 and is a fan of the luthier’s work. “It had the same gut strings that had been put on it in the ‘70s!” While Pine often plays the viola d’amore on her concert circuit—“performing one of the movements from a Vivaldi concerto as an encore on the 18th-century instrument, or spicing up Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with a d’amore cameo—it was time to make a recording.” So, partnering with period instrument ensemble Ars Antigua, whose members Pine notes are close friends, she has released her first recording of Vivaldi, and her first recording on the viola d’amore. The viola d’amore, for those who may not be familiar with its particulars, was the curious issue of one of those freakish experiments in instrument design which, in this case, turned out to be quite a success, outliving all of its immediate relatives and having long-lasting staying power unto the present day. The family member that seems to have given birth to the viola d’amore was the six-stringed treble viol, which was played in the same way under the chin and had approximately the same range of notes. Unlike its viol parent, however, the fingerboard of the viola d’amore was unfretted, suggesting that half of its genes came from the violin clan. The “experiment” referred to above involved adding a set of sympathetic strings under the fingerboard that would vibrate in sympathy with the fingered strings above. This meant that the viola d’amore had a minimum of 12 strings—and players of the modern viola think it’s expensive to replace a set of four strings! But soon a seventh fingered string with its corresponding sympathetic string was added, making 14 strings, and instruments have been found with as many as 14 sympathetic strings alone. While the viol family of instruments largely fell into disuse— supplanted by the violin, viola, and cello—as indicated above, the viola d’amore survived all of its viol parents and siblings. It was scored for in operas by Massenet (Le jongleur de Notre-Dame), Charpentier (Louise), Puccini (Madama Butterfly), and Janáček (The Makropulos Affair and Káťa Kabanová), among others, and in instrumental and orchestral works by Hans Gál, Hindemith, Hans Werner Henze, York Bowen, and many more. The viola d’amore was even more popular during the Baroque and Classical periods, being scored for in works by Bach, Telemann, the Stamitzes, Albrechtsberger, Hoffmeister, and, of course, the present Vivaldi, as well as others too numerous to name. Vivaldi may, in fact, have been the most prolific contributor to the instrument’s repertoire, having composed no fewer than six concertos featuring it in a solo capacity and two others in which it appears as one of the solo instruments in a concerto for two or more soloists. For the sake of completeness, it’s worth mentioning that the composer also included a part for viola d’amore in his seldom heard Nisi Dominus in A Major, RV 803; his Nisi Dominus in G Minor, RV 608, sans viola d’amore, is the popular one. Booklet note author Paul V. Miller explains that with the instrument’s non-standard scordatura tuning, “certain chords and bariolage effects were possible on it that would not be idiomatic on a traditional violin, which Vivaldi consistently exploits to good effect in these concertos.” The finale of the D-Major Concerto, RV 392, for example, takes advantage of the instrument’s ability “to play narrow double stops rapidly and accurately, building to a climax in the final solo section where many unison double stops brighten the color of the sound.” As with Vivaldi’s concertos for other instruments, those for viola d’amore require virtuoso technique. One such instance is the second movement of the A-Minor Concerto, RV 397, which “showcases the lower reaches of the viola d’amore, demanding a mastery of perilous string crossings.” Rachel Barton Pine, acclaimed and admired by many for her outstanding recordings of repertoire on modern violin, both mainstream and not so mainstream, trades in her violin for viola d’amore and joins here with the Chicago area Ars Antigua (not to be confused with the Austria-based period instrument ensemble Ars Antiqua) for one of the most bracing, invigorating Vivaldi albums I’ve heard in a very long time. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find much information on this Chicago-based ensemble—its official web site doesn’t even name its members, other than its director and double bassist, Jerry Fuller, and if ArkivMusic is to be believed, this is the group’s first ever and only recording. There are no entries in the Fanfare Archive. Pine is nothing short of fantastic. Performing on the aforementioned, original condition, 12-string, Nicola Gagliano viola d’amore, she infuses these concertos with irresistible vim, vigor, and vitality. Except for the Concerto for Viola d’amore and Lute, RV 540, which has had over three dozen recordings, the other concertos on this release are not especially well represented in the catalog. A Hyperion CD, now on Helios, with Catherine Mackintosh and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, pretty much duplicates this program, but it dates back to the 1990s and, besides not being as well recorded as this new Çedille release is, the performances sound rather stale compared to these vibrant readings by Pine and Ars Antigua. If you never buy another Vivaldi album, this one is a must-have. A rave recommendation. | |
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