Ottavio Dantone

Concertos for viola d'amore represent a fairly atypical part of Vivaldi's work, and he was probably the first composer to write pieces for this work in the solo concerto format. The viola d'amore was certainly well-liked for its soft, suggestive sound, which evoked the moods and climes of the orient thanks, in particular to its sympathetic strings which vibrate with those strings the player bows. But it was little-used because of its complex tuning and objective difficulties involved in playing it. In fact, the instrument would be tuned in different ways to fit the tonality of the piece being played – the famous scordatura, so finicky for the musicians – and it is believed that Vivaldi wrote these specifically for one of the musicians at Venice's Pietá: the famous Anna-Maria. Another characteristic of these concertos for viola d'amore, the rapid movements are also much longer and fuller than in most of Vivaldi's writing, for example in the seven string concertos which figure at the start of the album, or in the miniatures which were intended as showcases for the talent of the greatest possible number of soloists in the public concerts at the Pietá. A little curiosity is offered up here in the shape of the original concerto La Conca RV163, whose themes mimic the sound of the "conca", a kind of large marine conch used as an instrument since prehistoric times. The recording includes a conch being sounded at the start of the first movement by way of explanation. © SM/Qobuz

The musical world owes a great debt of thanks to the Vivaldi Project on Naive as it edges ever closer to fulfilling its mission to record around 450 Vivaldi works located in the National University Library of Turin, and not simply for the number of premiere recordings of long-forgotten works it's chalked up. Also because of the quality of each new offering in purely musical terms, often from veritable dream teams of artists. Truly, Vivaldi has shone, and Il tamerlano is no exception to that rule. Premiered in Verona in 1735, Il Tamerlano – also known as Bajazet after the Ottoman sultan who Tuco-Mongul emperor Timur (Tamerlano) kidnaps - is a pasticcio: a musical patchwork drawing on arias from multiple other works, and which in this case saw Vivaldi cherry-picking not just from his own operas but also inserting up to ten further arias by the likes of Geminiano Giacomelli, Johann Adolf Hasse and Riccardo Broschi. These Vivaldi then tied together with freshly written recitatives. The present recording also “reconstructs” five arias which were not in the score but were certainly sung in 1735. Artists-wise, it's a stellar line-up: Ottavio Dantone and his Accademia Bizantina for the tenth time in this series (not all of which has been opera, and if you want to hear them strutting their brilliant stuff in purely instrumental repertoire then head to the six late “Per il castello” violin concertos they recorded with violinist Alessandro Tampieri); then baritone Bruno Taddia as Bajazet, countertenor Filippo Mineccia as Tamerlano, along with mezzos Sophie Rennert and Marina de Liso, soprano Arianna Vendittelli and contralto Delphine Galou. As for the actual music-making, in orchestral terms the opening sinfonia says its all: Vivaldian rhythmic punch and exuberance for the fortes, contrasting with softer-focus passages of delicately airy elegance in which theorbo rises deliciously to the fore, while metre chugs along in perkily precise manner one moment, before being dramatically stretched or paused the next. Vocally speaking meanwhile, the treats keep coming, not least from golden-toned and elegantly feisty Mineccia - for instance in his Act 1 “Vedeste mai sul prato”. Or flip to the third act for a sublime “Son tortorella” from a ravishingly pure-toned Sophie Rennert as Irene, whose beautifully controlled vocal embellishments are further set off by the poeticism coming from the orchestra's softly cooing recorders, and from its strings shining in the barely-there chamber textures. Essentially, another Vivaldi opera revived to perfection. © Charlotte Gardner/Qobuz