Search - Antonio Vivaldi, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano :: Vivaldi: Vespri per l'Assunzione di Maria Vergine (Vivaldi Edition)

A superlative release!

M. Masztal | Melbourne Beach, FL | 02/08/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This release is first rate both from a performance and recording aspect. The vocalists are excellent and the orchestra's performance is flawless. I agree with the previous reviewer. Let the Italians handle Vivaldi. I will be purchasing other release in this edition."

5 stars are not enough

bel canto fan | edmonton, canada | 10/22/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album is first class all the way. Superb singing, particularly from Sara Mingardo. Her contralto goes all the way to your soul. Concerto Italiano plays Vivaldi like nobody else. Recording is excelent. Very highly recomended."

Sick of the Messiah?

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 10/18/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Try a little Vivaldi for a change! The Solemn Vespers for the Feast of the Assumption are music on about the same scale as Handel's Messiah, and they are anything but solemn. The musical mood ranges from boisterous exuberance to serene exaltation, with only a splash of anguish in the alto solo of the Laudate Pueri, when mention is made of barrenness. The texts are almost all the same Latin antiphons and psalms set by Claudio Monteverdi in his Vespers of 1610. A single year of composition can't be assigned to these Vespers, however, since the whole set is a hypothetical reconstruction drwn from various sources of Vivaldi's sacred music. Yes, Virginia, Vivaldi was a priest, and wrote quite a lot of sacred music, together with at least 46 operas. The Four Seasons, universally execrated as the choice for "May I put you on hold" in every dentist's phone in the world, is only the tiniest smidgeon of Vivaldi's output. Scoffers, get over it! The music of the Vespers purls forth in seamless melody and contrapuntal invention like the sparkling waters of the Trevi Fountain. To spurn Vivaldi is to declare that you don't like fun! Besides, it's all in Latin, so you don't need to politely ignore any pious hogwash.



The singers of Concerto Italiano are in fact all Italian - Gemma Bertagnolli, Roberta Invernizzi, Anna Simboli, Sara Mingardo, Gianluca Ferrarini, Matteo Belloto, conducted by Rinaldo Alessandrini. Just singing their names would give me a spritz of 'bel canto.' If you're familiar with the superb recordings by Concerto Italiano of Monteverdi's eight books of madrigals, these singers will be familiar names to you already, and will amount to a pretty good guarantee of the vocal virtuosity of this performance. The principal violinist is also Italian, Antonio De Secondi. Just as the best performances of Handel usually feature English singers and choristers, it seems to me that the Italians have a special feeling for Vivaldi. I believe they call it "Gioia".



The Vespers, by the way, are not included in the Brilliant Classics Box of Vivaldi Masterworks, except for the Magnificat. This performance is far superior to that of the ensemble in the box. I should point out that, as a conjectural Vespers, these two CDs are more a concert selection of fine individual pieces than a unified work. Alessandrini has chosen to order them following the fairly standard liturgical sequence for Marian Vespers. Nothing wrong with that, but the result is that the parts are greater than the sum."