Search - Tamas Benkocs, Antonio Vivaldi, Bela Drahos :: Vivaldi: Bassoon Concertos Vol.1

Bassoon playing at its finest

Christopher Jewell | 11/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an excellent set of CDs; the bassoon playing is absolutely superb. It can be hard to find great recordings of Vivaldi bassoon concerti on modern instruments, but Benkocs's playing is refined and technically brilliant. This is definitely one of the best bassoon recordings I've ever heard, on par with Dag Jensen, with whom Benkocs studied. Congrats to Naxos for finding a great bassoonist to do this project!"

Thank you!

Tyrel_Roo | Arkansas, USA | 05/29/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Until this set of recordings was started, all we really had as far as recordings of Vivaldi bassoon concerti were one or two performances of the more popular ones by excellent bassoonists and a load of garbage by a man named Daniel Smith, whose playing is an abomination to both Vivaldi and the bassoon.



(It sickens me that, when we have incredible bassoonists like Dag Jensen and Bernard Garfield and Knut Sönstevold and David McGill and Laurent Lefevré and the late Maurice Allard--perhaps the greatest bassoonist to ever live--and a host of others, all of whom could play circles around Daniel Smith, that the latter's recordings outsell those of the former. He's been called the "James Galway of the bassoon", a pure load of dingo's kidneys by somebody who's obviously never heard even a decent bassoonist in his life. Ridiculous.)



Although Tamás' tone is a little dark for my tastes, it's certainly extremely pleasant to listen to. His phrasing is very beautiful, his technique is spotless, and unlike bassoonists with the initials D.S., he doesn't sound constipated.



Thank you, Tamás. Hopefully, if you complete this set, people will come to their senses.



Buy these discs. You'll like them."

Excellent cd

K. Jennings | Midwest, USA | 12/30/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a wonderful Vivaldi selection that does a great job of featuring bassoon. It is classic Vivaldi music and is only made better by the addition of the bassoon solos. For anyone who enjoys the gorgeous energeticness of Vivaldi and wants to hear some bassoon, this is the cd to get."