Tonight was my own pick and it led to a wiki-pedia like branching of discovery. I wanted to hear a disc of Vivaldi concertos I have (somewhere – never found it tonight!) of cellist Anner Bylsma playing a number of cello concertos (as well as some other string concertos thrown in as well). There are two of these discs on Sony classics, and the first one (the missing one, the out of print one that I can’t even find an mp3 download for now … dammit!) has a SMOKING performance of the a minor RV 418 concerto. It was the recording that made me love Anner Bylsma as a cellist and made me seek out anything with him on it (and I don’t think I was ever really disappointed). Anyways – I dug out all the Vivaldi I could find (with about half of it stacked in the ‘second layer’ on the book shelves). But in the process of doing that I also found…

– A 4 disc set of Raphael Wallfisch playing the ‘complete’ Vivaldi cello concertos

– Idil Birit’s complete Chopin on Naxos (a great set)

– 3 complete Mahler cycles (??? – indeed!)

and a plethora (si jefe, a plethora) of historical recordings:

– A literal handful of the Toscanini double disc remasters on BMG (that are going to be on tap next I believe)

– Both volumes of historical recordings featuring Isaac Stern (one of my favorite Sibelius violin concerto recordings included

– Early Wilhelm Kempff recordings re-issued on DG in a box a few years back

So I have some fun times ahead. I haven’t really looked through that second layer in some time, so it was almost like digging through a bin at a record store. There is a LOT there I forgot I had.

Anyways, if anyone out there by any chance has my ‘Vivaldi: Concertos for Strings’ with Anner Bylsma and Tafelmusik, please let me know. It is missed.

As for what I am ripping now though, I am mostly through with the cello concertos (and I’m listening to a slightly tamer RV 418 at the moment) and enjoying them quite a bit. Stravinsky’s dismissal of Vivaldi’s work as ‘the same concerto 400 times’ is a bit harsh. As far as string writing goes, the solo parts are often stunningly virtuosic. And while the ritornello form is used to exhausting ends, there was a reason for this. It works quite well, and gives an elegant balance to the whole orchestra and the soloist(s). What is especially interesting to me as well is that, as a form, it doesn’t have the boxiness that the later classical period seemed to develop with phrasing. Sections are not evenly paced (4 measures, another 4 measures, followed by another 4 measures etc. etc.). The tutti sections often cut off early or abbreviate their appearance, or sometimes extend and modulate to unexpected places. In this respect, the form that Vivaldi explored so deeply is quite conversational. Both sides get to speak (especially in the outer movements) and while the tutti sections are louder and more forceful, it is the solo parts that have an intricate mastery. Vivaldi’s solo writing can be quite virtuosic, and at other times his operatic tendencies come through (especially in the slower movements). While Stravinsky may have scoffed at Vivaldi’s work (and part of me would be surprised if there isn’t more to that quote then what is usually said), I can say that it looks like I will be ripping a good 80 of these concertos in the next night or two… and I am pretty sure I will have a good time listening to all of them. And after that I still have the ‘Stabat Mater’ to listen to again (what a great piece).