Texte paru dans: / Appeared in: |
|
|
Outil de traduction ~ (Très approximatif) |
|
|
Reviewer: Robert
Maxham
Richard Tognetti has added to his recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons a selection of concertos, concerto movements, and a sinfonia. The program opens with the popular though maligned Four Seasons. “Spring” sets the tone: bright and clean though full-bodied textures accompany by turns sprightly and lyrical violin playing (with Tognetti reconstituting all the silver from the 1743 Carrodus Guarneri del Gesù violin—the engineers have certainly helped him to do so). The cleanliness and bright clarity of the first movement reemerge, however unlikely that may be, in the gauzy second; the third sounds downright athletic. The crunchy vigor of that movement returns in the first movement of “Summer,” which in addition to its sprightly virtuosity presents bracing musical depictions of a summer storm. Tognetti never seems to seek potential shock in these pictorial elements: Though his and the ensemble’s version of Vivaldi may not be worn to the smoothness of I Musici’s (in its various incarnations), his level-headedness will make the performances easy to return to, if only for the sumptuousness of his tone. He makes the second movement’s calm almost unbearable in its tension (remember the end of the scherzo from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony) before he allows the energy to burst forth in the finale. The peasant dance in the first movement of “Autumn” sounds particularly vigorous in Tognetti’s reading; he spits out the arpeggios that enliven it, and plays the teasing passages almost coquettishly. If timing’s crucial to comic—or even dramatic—delivery, Tognetti delivers each musical punchline after just the right pause, invariably heightening the effect. He allows the harpsichord’s meanderings to occupy center stage in the slow movement, but returns as a commanding soloist in the finale, with its vivid, virtuosic characterizations of hunting horns and fleeing prey. The ensemble presents its own version of icy chill in the opening of “Winter,” but sudden outbursts should offer a few surprises, even to those who have learned to expect almost anything in these tone paintings. As has more or less become the fashion, he takes the slow movement rather fast—it’s a very splashy afternoon as he sits before his fire (and, due to the tempo, a very brief one). He and the ensemble wind up their pitch for a long time in the finale, but the movement as well as the windup bring with them some inventive timbral effects, and, at the end, dazzling lightning in the rushing notes. Tognetti explicitly includes the Largo from the Concerto in D Major, RV 226, as a sort of footnote to the slow movement of “Winter,” and he plays it with equal charm. The bracing performance the soloists and ensemble give the 10th Concerto from L’estro armonico should whet many listeners’ appetites for a complete set of these 12 famous concertos from this ensemble. The group highlights the driving energy of the Concerto’s first movement, the drama in the outer sections of its second and the bustle of its central passage, and, finally the diamond-like brilliance of its finale. The Concerto in A Minor, op. 3/6, has become the plague upon violin students. (The Suzuki method includes the violin part from Tividar Nachez’s reconstruction; in an attempt to make the violin’s repetitious passagework more interesting, he more than gilded the lily.) But Tognetti and the ensemble leave such repugnant memories far behind, lending the second movement, in particular, a diaphanous transparency that some listeners may find as surprising as satisfying. The finale is livelier in this reading than many students will have thought it capable of being. The Largo from the Concerto per la Solennità di San Lorenzo, in which Tognetti provides a descant above chordal passages, leads to the Sinfonia from La verità in cimento, a particularly brilliant stroke in their performance. This Four Seasons with its accompanying music—much more than mere filler—represents sanity and balance. It may not pump up listeners’ blood pressure, but it’s consistently interesting and contains more than a few pleasant surprises. Strongly recommended, even for those who have a shelf full of Vivaldi. | |
|
|
|
|
Cliquez l'un ou l'autre
bouton pour découvrir bien d'autres critiques de CD |
|
/7318599921037.jpg)
