VIVALDI Concerti per violino Volume 5

All the concertos selected here are linked to German violinist Johann Georg Pisendel, member of the Dresden orchestra, that spent a long time in Venice in 1716-1717, beside the Electoral Prince of Saxony Friedrich August. Vivaldi and Pisendel became very close friends and the Prete Rosso composed several works for Pisendel. Moreover, Pisendel copied and performed afterwards in Germany several concertos of Vivaldi. This series of 7 concertos is an overview of the complete art of Vivaldi as a composer and violinist: large scale of music, invention, expression, energy, power of evocation, considerable virtuosity.

Dmitry Sinkowsky is a fast rising baroque violinist and conductor. He is currently the conductor of the Italian leading baroque orchestra Il Complesso Barocco in Joyce di Donato’s worldwide ‘Drama Queen’ tour. In every concert of this tour, he performs Vivaldi’s violin concerto RV 242, featuring in this new recording. “The violinist Dmitry Sinkovsky gyrated like a rock guitarist during his gorgeous rendition of Vivaldi’s Concerto in D minor for Violin, Strings and Continuo (RV 242), his virtuosity seeming as effortless as Ms. DiDonato’s, and his soulful, aching rendition of the Adagio holding the audience spellbound.” -- The New York Times - November 2012 

VIVALDI Concerti per violino Volume 4

“Riccardo Minasi is a player with lively feeling for theatrical gesture and a technique that comfortably accommodates Vivaldi's virtuosity. He breathes life into these wonderfully expressive concertos with a musical rapport that perhaps responds more readily to bravura passages than to lyrical ones...committed Vivaldians should be delighted.” --BBC Music Magazine, September 2012

“His virtuosity cannot be doubted and his tone courses like a young stream but a restless imagination looks beyond straightforward niceness and elegance for something deeper, more sharply moulded, in places even darker...This is not really Vivaldi as easy listening...But for anyone wanting a touch of Dionysian poetry, it is a disc worth returning to.” --Gramophone Magazine, September 2012

“Minasi is certainly an impressive virtuoso and his playing is rhythmically exciting and expressively affecting in equal measure. His account of the Largo of the G minor Concerto, RV327 is beautifully sustained and tenderly spoken. Yet too often, elsewhere, I feel cheated of the music's 'gentillesse' and its lyricism. Notwithstanding such misgivings, though, this is impressive playing by all concerned.” --International Record Review, June 2012

VIVALDI Violin Concertos Volume 3

“This dazzling recital of violin concertos highlights the vast expressive range of which Vivaldi was capable, especially when writing for his own instrument. Duilio Galfetti and I Barocchisti under Diego Fasolis give ardent, full-blooded performances which I find irrepressible and full of theatrical gesture.” --BBC Music Magazine, November 2009 *****

“each concerto is given a radiant account by Duilio Galfetti and the wonderfully incisive I Barocchisti” --The Observer, 16th August 2009 
↪ Vol.1 - Vol.2

Duilio M. Galfetti (violin) - I Barocchisti, Diego Fasolis

Naïve releases the third volume dedicated to Vivaldi’s violin concertos in its ground breaking project, the Vivaldi Edition. Multi award-winning violinist Duilio Galfetti is accompanied by acclaimed early music ensemble I Barocchisti under the direction of Diego Fasolis.

Vivaldi violin scholar Olivier Fouré continues to assist Naïve in giving coherence to the awesome task of recording some 90 violin concertos written by Vivaldi. Armed with a wealth of historical knowledge of the background to these concertos, he has cleverly divided them by theme. The violin concertos in this volume have been chosen specifically to reflect the strong influence of dance on the music of the composer. The recording features two of Vivaldi’s favourite violin concertos, RV210 and RV333, several sequences from RV333 are used in other compositions, notably the slow movement which recurs in RV556. They perfectly display Vivaldi’s inimitable genius for fashioning strong musical identities in next to no time.

After obtaining his diploma in violin from the Dreilinden Conservatory of Lucerne in the class of Gunars Larsens in 1989, Duilio M. Galfetti started a long collaboration with the Milanese Baroque ensemble Il Giardino Armonico. Over this period, as an accomplished lutenist as well as violinist, he made a number of major recordings for Teldec, including Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, and Vivaldi’s complete mandolin and lute concertos, which were enthusiastically received by the critics and won numerous awards (Diapason d’Or, Choc du Monde de la Musique, and a Gramophone Award). In 1997 Duilio Galfetti became a member of the Swiss-Italian Radio Symphony Orchestra and founded the acclaimed early music ensemble I Barocchisti with Diego Fasolis.

BIRDS in Baroque Music

The first album of soprano Dorothee Mields and the South African recorder player Stefan Temmingh titled Inspired by Song was equally and highly praised by audiences and critics alike and convinced with "considerable artistic value". Bird voices in the Baroque music are the focal point of the new common CD. With works by Couperin, Fedeli, Rameau, Keiser, and famous Concerto "Il Gardel Lino" (The Goldfinch), Mields together with Temmingh, the gentleman's band, and musicians of the La Folia magnificent Baroque Orchestra produce stunning musical bird songs of a nightingale, goldfinch, cuckoo, chickens, pigeons and various other birds.

Release date: 6th Nov 2015

VIVALDI Concerti per fagotto IV

As in the successful volumes 1-3 this is a very exciting recording, featuring the bassoon as you never heard before! 

The thirty-nine bassoon concertos by Vivaldi constitute the largest collection of works devoted to this noble instrument. Clearly, the creativity of Vivaldi was greatly boosted by the phenomenal flexibility and nostalgic sound of the bassoon, which is still remarkable in the way it can "imitate" the human voice. It should also be emphasized that Vivaldi, a violinist, was always very attracted to the instruments with deep range.

So much so that apart from the considerable number of works he dedicated to his own instrument, it is for bassoon and cello that he composed the greatest number of works. It is Italian bassoonist Sergio Azzolini who offers these six concertos, the fourth component of an box set published by Naive. The richness and invention of Vivaldi makes for an exhilirating listening experience from start to finish.

BAROQUE Concerti

Though the title Giovincello seems to make a specific musical reference, it is simply an affectionate Italian term meaning 'young man'. Only 20 years old when he recorded this album, Edgar Moreau "has already found his place in the great tradition of French cello-playing" (Diapason). Here he brings his youthful energy and virtuosic thrills to 18th-century cello concertos by Haydn, Vivaldi, Boccherini, Platti, and the world-premiere recording of a Baroque concerto by Carlo Graziani.
Release date: 6th Nov 2015

The centrepiece of Giovincello is Haydn's Cello Concerto No 1 in C major, which is joined by Vivaldi's Concerto in A minor RV 419 and three concertos by somewhat lesser-known Italian composers of the 18th century who all made careers outside their native country: Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) - an important figure in the history of chamber music - who spent much of his life in Spain; Giovanni Platti (1697-1763), who lived for more than 40 years in Würzburg in Bavaria, and Carlo Graziani (.-1787), a somewhat shadowy figure who became cello teacher to Frederick Wilhelm II of Prussia and whose Cello Concerto in C Major is given its world-premiere recording here.

VIVALDI Teatro alla moda

BBC RADIO 3 CD REVIEW DISC OF THE WEEK

'Gli Incogniti show us the violinistic tricks, the brilliance and invention that fell foul of Marcello s pamphlet ... a wonderful example of the joys to be in found in violinist Amandine Beyer and her ensemble Gli Incogniti s latest recording ... it may take its title from a pamphlet lampooning Vivaldi but it makes a virtue of it in the way it uses it to explore the breadth of the man of the theatre who was also a brilliant violinist ... highly recommended' --Andrew McGregor BBC Radio 3 CD Review, 7th November 2015

1720: in his famous pamphlet 'Il teatro alla moda', the composer Marcello satirised the excesses of new-fangled Venetian opera. Cadenzas, variations, ‘divismo’, virtuosity, popular dances, assorted sound effects: nearly three centuries later, each of the ‘qualities’ he mocked has provided the inspiration for this new release from Gli Incogniti to the glory of Vivaldi. The Red Priest who aroused Marcello’s patrician indignation could not have cared less about such formal taboos! His experiments, his spontaneity, his juxtapositions and contrasts served only one rhetorical cause: the theatrical dimension of his instrumental music. Take your seats!

TRUMPET Recital

Hungarian trumpeter Tamás Pálfalvis debut CD presents an intriguing blend of the old and new with creative transcriptions of Baroque and Classical era concertos, along with rarely recorded modern pieces by Mauricio Kagel , György Ligeti and more. Pálfalvis impressive handling of his trumpet and his daring choices for his debut release make this a promising debut and his gift one to watch and listen for.
Release date: 1st Oct 2015

VIVALDI The Four Seasons

James Ehnes takes a break from the 19th and 20th century repertoire and has recorded for the first time in his career four of the most famous baroque violin concertos – Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, the first four works in his set of 12, Op. 8. James also directs the Sydney Symphony. Vivaldi provided his own sonnets as prefaces to each of the concertos and these are available from the Onyx website. The Vivaldi is prefaced by two famous violin sonatas – Tartini’s 'Devils Trill' in the skilful arrangement by Fritz Kreisler which is very faithful to the original text, to which Kreisler adds the famous cadenza in the finale. Release date: 2nd Oct 2015

Leclair, one the few composers to have been murdered, was known as ‘The French Corelli’. Of his Op. 9 set of 12 sonatas for violin, the third has become the most popular for its ‘Tambourin’ finale, depicting a pipe-and-drum dance with drone effects - all good fun!