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The best recordings of Vivaldi's Sacred Music - and I've hea

Sacerdos Atque Discipulus | Rome, Italy | 05/11/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This 10 disc set on the Philips label contains, what I believe, is the best available and most complete set of the Sacred Music of Vivaldi. Aside from a recently discovered Nisi Dominus, the set is very thorough, even containing the "supplementum" alternative versions to parts of Juditha Triumphans. I also am very happy that this set has the "Sacrum" Mass (RV 586) which is difficult to find, probably because the authorship of Vivaldi is questionable. Nevertheless it is a fine baroque Mass and every piece is exceptionally well done on this 10-CD set.



The recordings are slightly older but not lacking; they had originally come out in the 90's and I have heard and purchased many of them before on the individual Philips CDs. I don't think that they have been surpassed though. It is wonderful that they are now being re-released. I also have the "complete" compilation of Vivaldi's Sacred Music under the Hyperion label but this one on the Philips label much more thorough and the performance superior.



The only criticism that I have of this CD set is that the accompanying booklet is inadequate. It does have a fine essay by the excellent musicologist Michael Talbot, who has also written a book about Vivaldi, but I know that previously when the CDs were released individually that there was excellent commentary on each of the sacred works. That is not so in this box set and it is frankly a bit of a let-down. Also, the text of the sacred music is only reprinted in the Latin and not in other translations. This is again, a let-down. The CD set would have been absolutely perfect if Philips had not skimped and printed a larger, more thorough booklet to accompany this beautiful music; even if they had simply reprinted the musical notes and translations from the CDs originally released in the 90's. The Philips Vivaldi Sacred Music set is part of much larger set of Vivaldi compilations they have released so they may have wanted to save money or cut corners for whatever reason.



Nevertheless, I cannot stress how beautiful this music is and how outstanding the performances and recordings of it are. Even if the booklet is lacking in information, the actual music makes up for it and I highly recommend this edition of Vivaldi's sacred music."