Vivaldi Gloria in D, RV589 ^a. Magnificat in G minor, RV611 ^a. Concerto for Strings in D minor, RV243. Concerto for Oboe, Trumpet and Strings in D, RV563 ^b. ^a Deborah York, ^a Patrizia Biccire (sops); ^a Sara Mingardo (contr); ^b Andrea Mioh (ob); ^b Gabriele Cassone (tpt); ^a Akademia; Concerto Italiano / Rinaldo Alessandrini.

Opus 111 (Full price) (CD) OPS30 195 (60 minutes: DDD). Texts and translations included. Recorded in association with the Conseil General de l’Ain and the Region Champagne-Ardenne.

Once having recovered from the shock of hearing the jubilant opening chorus of Vivaldi’s celebrated setting of the Gloria, sung at what initially struck me as a breakneck tempo, I quickly began to enter into the vital spirit of Rinaldo Alessandrini’s performance. In fact it is not only this introductory movement that is thought-provoking but also the carefully considered tempos of several other sections of the work, some of them much slower than we have become used to. Alessandrini lays far greater emphasis than many of his rivals on the meaning of the Latin text. The two supplicatory sections, “Domine Deus, Rex caelestis” and “Domini Deus, Agnus Dei”, are both sensitively handled with affective dynamic shading; in the first of them Alessandrini avails himself of Vivaldi’s option for a violin solo rather than the more customarily heard oboe. The piece is lyrically sung by Deborah York with a beautifully sustained and imaginatively ornamented violin accompaniment played by Francesca Vicari. The soloist in the second of these movements is Sara Mingardo, whose voice recently made a favourable impression on me in a programme of Vivaldi chamber cantatas with concertos, also directed by Alessandrini (Opus 111, 11/97).

The other sacred vocal work in this new release is the latest of several adaptations Vivaldi made of a Magnificat which he had originally written for the Pieta, probably during the second decade of the eighteenth century. One of the principal differences between this version and the earlier ones lies in five arias for named singers among the figlie di coro of the Pieta. These are effectively contrasted pieces which, as Michael Talbot has pointed out, reflect Vivaldi’s understanding of each singer’s capabilities and performing style. In this performance the solos are distributed among three rather than five artists, but it hardly matters since each is sung with distinctive character – Mingardo indulges in an effective cadenza in her “Esurientes” – and accomplished technique.

Two concertos of contrasting aspect and instrumentation complete this very attractive programme. Both have been recorded previously, though, in the case of RV563 (sometimes encountered under the catalogue number RV781), not quite in the way it is performed here, with a natural trumpet and oboe as playful protagonists in the outer movements. In the slow movement the trumpet is tacet, the oboe assuming a solo role with scalewise passages of a somewhat vacuous character. Never mind, this is a rewarding issue above all, perhaps, for the expressive performance of the Magnificat.

NA