# How much Vivaldi



## ozradio (Oct 23, 2008)

How many discs of Vivaldi is enough for you? 1, 10, 100? What are the must-haves besides the Seasons?


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

In my opinion, anything by Fabio Biondi on Veritas. His L'Estro Arminico recording is, as they say, Faboo. There are earlier recordings on Naive which are good but not to the same level. 

And I'm finding out that his sacred vocal music is pretty darn good too.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

At present I have around 9 Vivaldi recordings that include - The Four Seasons, various sacred music, opera arias, and concerti, and I'm still planning on buying his complete sacred music collection. So I've not yet reached my limits with his music, at 9 discs not even close.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Vivaldi was one of my first loves in the world of classical music. Of course I had the Four Seasons... the classic Marriner version:










In spite of the fact that the work is grossly overplayed (something that doesn't affect me... I rarely listen to the radio) I still find it to be a lovely piece and have two newer recordings:










You can't go wrong with Anne Sophie...










... and I agree that the Fabio Biondi recordings are also always worthwhile.

Among Vivaldi's other concerto work (which admittedly can start to all blur together at times) my favorites are surely:










the great Mandolin concerti...










_L'Estro Armonico_










and _La Stravaganza_...

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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

I have a few other collections of concertos which I admittedly listen to rarely:



















I have a few discs of sonatas which I find quite marvelous:



















Where I think Vivaldi is most under-recognized is as a composer of vocal music: choral works, motets, and opera. His Gloria has been known for a long time... and I have two older recordings myself:



















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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

as well as a more recent recording:










But his choral oeuvre is quite rich. I was especially thrilled with this reconstruction (wholly from existing works and fragments by the composer) of a _Vespers_:










I am currently awaiting the arrival of a recording of his motets... which I should find an interesting comparison with Monteverdi... whose motets I have been exploring over the past year.










A good while back I rember first coming upon Vivaldi the opera composer through the efforts of Cecilia Bartoli:










Since then a vast oeuvre of Vivaldi's operatic works have begun to make themselves known... and any number are of real merit:



















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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Among the discs of Vivaldi works on my wish list I would include:


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

One is enough for me.


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## Il Seraglio (Sep 14, 2009)

It depends on how much you like Vivaldi already. As with Handel and Hasse, his operas are decidedly underrepresented on the recording side of things, but I digress.

In any case, apart from the Seasons, his Gloria in D (Rinaldo Alessandrini and the Concerto Italiano do a great job of this), Violin Concerto in G major, Mandolin Concerto and Double Mandolin Concerto are pretty essential listening.


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## ozradio (Oct 23, 2008)

A lot to look for, thanks.


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## the_emptier (Jan 27, 2011)

1, honestly can't stand Vivaldi. Bores me so much.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I have a few concerto discs (including the four seasons of course), but for me this is background music only.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I've got 2 discs of sacred music and a 4-disc set of concertos, mainly for violin. Perversely the Four Seasons isn't amongst them - it's possibly the most famous repertoire that I don't have. Is it worth getting the whole op 8? No-one ever seems to mention the other 8 concertos which make up the whole set.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Nice collection of CDs there, member StLukesGuildOhio. I have several of those!


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## Listener (Sep 20, 2010)

There is no such thing as too much Vivaldi. Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante are excellent but Giuliano Carmignola and the Venice Baroque are my favorites.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

1, honestly can't stand Vivaldi. Bores me so much.

In most cases, anyone who can say something like this simply hasn't sat down and seriously listened to Vivaldi beyond the "greatest hits" of his concerti grossi.






I love Jaroussky's unearthly voice... but this driving version is equally thrilling:


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Nice collection of CDs there, member StLukesGuildOhio. I have several of those!

I would be surprised if you didn't considering you are one of the resident experts on the Baroque while I am only beginning to dig into it.:tiphat:


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Vivaldi has a LOT of lesser known great works but I honestly can't even understand how someone could find his Four Seasons boring. To each their own I suppose.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

_Four Seasons_ concertos, whatever you think of them, draw many people of all ages and musical background and tastes to it, which is a fact. Great violinists and bands have recorded numerous versions of it, which is a fact.

The thing about Vivaldi that many appear to miss, was that he pioneered (or was one of the pioneers) of the Italian three movement concerto form, which was taken up by J. S. Bach and he was audaciously original with the solo concerto form; so much so, that he wrote a few hundred as his original audiences never really got tired of them for much of their time. It's all too easy for a modern listener like ourselves, who have listened to many of the larger grand concertos from the late Classical, Romantic and maybe also contemporary to say that Vivaldi wrote the same piece several hundred times, and yet be equally amazed with the originality of Monteverdi's mere 2 or 3 surviving operas. (Bear in mind that Monteverdi died only 35 years earlier than the birth of Vivaldi).


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Coming from the position of one having listened primarily to the Baroque or to a non-classical genre... it is easy to imagine that all of Brahms or Mahler's symphonies could be thought to "sound the same". It is, after all, only with experience... as one delves deeper... that one begins to recognize and appreciate the finer nuances in any art form.


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## the_emptier (Jan 27, 2011)

I am just still not a fan of the baroque era, i love certain composers yes, but the whole lively harpsichordy jingle doesn't go with me. and I have legitimately listened to a good deal of vivaldi, i used to listen to him when I wasn't really knowledgeable about classical music. and I just haven't found anything that I like. I will check out the above videos though


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## Barking Spiderz (Feb 1, 2011)

Baroque generally bores me rigid but several of Vivaldi's works are the exception including his concerto for two mandloins and some of the guitar concertos mainly the one in D major. However, you need to find the right recording where the largo isnt played too fast as is the case of a recording by the Romero brothers. There should only be one guitar playing this not four!


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I believe the key to Baroque music is close attention to the melodies. That helps in all of classical music and jazz, but in the case of Baroque music, it really is the point.

Today we play it so often as sonic wallpaper, but that music is from a time when instrumental music was rare, and people would devote their sole attention to it, so they wanted to hear (and play!) something inventive and festive. 

The key, in my opinion, is Telemann. He wasn't a cutting-edge guy driving music in new directions like Vivaldi or Bach, so there're few "music history" or "music theory" excuses to listen to his music today. But he was a popular and accessible entertainer, and his music is consistently "a good time." If you try to hum along, you'll like it. 

I'll push Telemann a little harder than many people, and I mean absolutely no disrespect to any Baroque composer (certainly not Bach or Vivaldi), but ten years ago I had pretentions of composing music, and the music that I heard in my mind was essentially Telemann. But not that good! Listen to the first third of a movement, and then pause it and think, how should the music proceed from here? Hum it out two or three different ways. And then listen to what Telemann does with it, and you'll never call Baroque music boring again. 

This kind of thing works with a lot of classical music. I often think that a lot of classical music - perhaps especially Baroque music and Romantic chamber music - was written for performers rather than hearers, because when you pay that kind of attention, you can't fail to appreciate how wonderfully inventive it is.

Sorry if this comes off as something of a sermon - I don't mean it that way. I'm just a lover of the music! And I am kind of proselytizing here....


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## Igneous01 (Jan 27, 2011)

while i love classical era and the romanticist eras - baroque is where it all started - So i hold vivaldi bach and handel to the greatest respect - more so than I do beethoven or romantic composers (but they are also high on my list)

at first I couldnt get enough of vivaldis concertos, now that i discovered he wrote chorales I have been listening to these and i must say in Furore Motet is my most favorite choral by him. 3rd movement is just divine.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

It strikes me that it wasn't all that long ago... perhaps not long before I started to seriously listen to classical music... that Handel might have been as summarily dismissed. He was the composer of the _Water Music_ and the _Royal Fireworks Music_... and the Concerti Gross op. 3 and 6 ("Which all sound the same") and of course the_ Messiah_... but other than that...? Now it is clear that he was a towering figure... not far beneath Bach. He wrote 40+ operas, nearly 30 oratorios, over 100 cantatas... a very little that was not of the highest quality... and much that was brilliant. Vivaldi, it seems, thought of himself as a "freelance entrepreneur"... a man of the stage... rather than a virtuoso violinist and the innovator of the solo concerto form. He claims to have written 94 operas (30... and a good amount of fragments survive) as well as the wealth of choral works and motets. Just as I cannot think of Bach without his choral works... limited to the Brandenburg Concertos and the other concerti grossi... or Handel limited to the Water Music, the Royal Fireworks Music, so I can't imagine thinking of Vivaldi without his vocal works... where not too long ago... and even now in the minds and experiences of many... Vivaldi is defined solely by his works in the form of the concerto grossi.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

^ Great points, and now you're inspiring me to expand on my Vivaldi collection (not that I needed much more inspiration than his music.) But the Magdalena Kozena recording may be just the place to start for me again (that and Biondi's Seasons are also on my list I don't care what people think I still love his concerti). Kozena has a wonderful voice though, great recommendation!


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Yes the Biondi Four Seasons is absolutely a "must have". But check into this box set which includes The Four Seasons and 3 other discs of concerti:

http://www.amazon.com/Vivaldi-Quattro-Stagioni-Concerti-Box/dp/B000VZN7JA/ref=sr_1_12?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1299303151&sr=1-12

As to the Kozena disc... it is quite marvelous... but she is but one of a number of star vocalists including Andreas Scholl, Philippe Jaroussky, Sandrine Piau, Vivica Genaux, Cecilia Bartoli, as well as Kozena who have been part of the rediscovery of Vivaldi's vocal music.


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## Guest (Mar 5, 2011)

Although they have already been recommended, I would have to say that I would be quite happy with the Vivaldi recordings of Fabio Biondi/Europe Galante, Giuliano Carmignola/Andrea Marcon/Venice Baroque Orchestra, and Romanesca (Andrew Manze). I don't really have a desire to amass the entire repertoire of Vivaldi, but am quite happy with those recordings I do have. There is a recording of wind concertos by Trevor Pinnock/The English Concert that I have always greatly loved.


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