"Why should I bother with yet another recording of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons?" you may ask. "There are already 226 entries for it at arkivmusic.com!"
Because baroque violinist Rachel Podger and Brecon Baroque's new, period instrument Channel Classics SACD of Le Quattro Stagioni and three other violin concertos by Vivaldi is likely the freshest, most joy-filled, and best-recorded of the bunch. Podger, who plays with and directs her superb ensemble of eight, isn't interested in knocking you over the head with pyrotechnic wizardry or some bizarre 21st century take on Vivaldi's Top Hit of 1730. Instead, her sole desire, masterfully enabled by engineer Jared Sacks, is to honor the humor, invention, good spirits, and marvelous interplay of colors that have made Vivaldi's irresistibly tuneful concerto a perennial classic.
Available in stereo and surround, in download resolutions up to DSD256 or DXD—I auditioned it in DSD128—the recording puts a premium on color and space. Set down in St. Jude's Church, London, which is completely not immune to the very occasional low rumble from passing traffic or, perhaps, the Underground, the recording optimally balances acoustic resonance with clarity of focus. With period instrument timbres far less homogenized than their modern counterparts—the sound of theorbo in the adagio of one of the recording's infinitely lovely companion concertos, Il Riposo per Il S.S. Natale, is to savor over and over—the recording puts a premium on color saturation, interplays and contrasts without ever drawing attention to itself. Made with DSD Super Audio / Horus DSD256 Pyramix Editing/Merging Technologies equipment and Van den Hul cables, this native DSD production is demonstration class.
It's the playing, however, that puts Podger's version over the top. You may not know the program of The Four Seasons, but the ever-popular first movement, La Primavera (Spring), includes violins imitating trilling birds, and scoring designed to maximize the feelings of height, space, and the freedom that spring brings (for everyone except the seriously allergic). Having interviewed Podger, and found her every bit as charming as her playing, it's clear that her hand-picked ensemble is filled with musicians who share her delight in music, sound, and life. With no pun intended, this is one of the gayest versions of La Primavera I've ever encountered.
With the second movement, L'Estate (Summer), populated by flies and mosquitoes, thunder from an approaching storm, and the inward ruminations of an occasionally bitten, storm-threatened shepherd; the third movement, L'Autunno (Autumn) centering around a drunken fool who so annoys the ensemble that they determine to do him in; and the close, L'Inverno (Winter), replete with shivering limbs and chattering teeth that eventually warm by the fireside as raindrops hit the window pane, The Four Seasons is ripe with narrative and humor. Once you know what it's about, you can savor all of that in this recording.
Because the three other concertos are not as well known—Vivaldi, after all, wrote at least 214 of his over 500 concertos for violin and orchestra—is no reason to write them off. The intentionally light scoring of the aforementioned Il Riposo (The Rest) allows for an overabundance of lovely, sweet felicities that transform time and space into a wonderland come true. Concerto L'Amoroso (The Lover) is just as sweet, while the closing Concerto, Il Grosso Mogul (The Great Mogul) is a grand, slashing tour-de-force. Most likely a fantasy written for a theatrical performance or opera set in India (by someone who had never visited India), it serves as a foil to the two short concertos that precede it, and enables us to rise from our seats refreshed and optimistic.
