Vivaldi: L'estro armonico - 12 concerti, Op. 3
Rachel Podger (violin & director)
Brecon Baroque
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 9th March 2015
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Sunday Times, 2015, Albums of the Year
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BBC Music Magazine, April 2015, Disc of the month
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Gramophone Magazine, April 2015, Disc of the Month
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Gramophone Awards, 2015, Finalist - Baroque Instrumental
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2015
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BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2016, Concerto Winner
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Building a Library, March 2020, Recommended Recording
There's a sense of Podger and her players examining and analysing every note in their preparation, deciding on its role, and placing it carefully back into context, without ever disturbing the...
Vivaldi: L'estro armonico - 12 concerti, Op. 3
Rachel Podger (violin & director)
Brecon Baroque
Purchase product
Awards:
-
Presto Recording of the Week, 9th March 2015
-
Sunday Times, 2015, Albums of the Year
-
BBC Music Magazine, April 2015, Disc of the month
-
Gramophone Magazine, April 2015, Disc of the Month
-
Gramophone Awards, 2015, Finalist - Baroque Instrumental
-
Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2015
-
BBC Music Magazine Awards, 2016, Concerto Winner
-
Building a Library, March 2020, Recommended Recording
There's a sense of Podger and her players examining and analysing every note in their preparation, deciding on its role, and placing it carefully back into context, without ever disturbing the...
About
Vivaldi augmented his reputation as ‘The Red Priest’ with ‘L'Estro Armonico’, Op. 3, a collection of twelve concertos for one, two and four violins. The title of the collection encapsulates the qualities that so entranced Vivaldi’s contemporaries. ‘L’Estro Armonico’, which might be translated as ‘musical rapture’, reflects the vitality and freshness of Vivaldi’s invention: its rhythmic energy, melodic and harmonic intensity, textural sensuousness, performative brilliance and dramatic flair.
“These pieces are truly exhilarating to play and perform and their fresh impact never fails to hit some target or other, judging by the reaction of a live audience. Not often do you witness four violins trying to outdo each other! During Brecon Baroque's concerts preceding the recording, the rapier-like turns in musical conversations between the four parts always seemed to lead to added expectation and excitement – all the more effective because of the contrasted moments of deep melancholy which Vivaldi somehow manages to express irrespective of mode” (Rachel Podger) The dynamic ensemble Brecon Baroque was founded in 2007 by violinist and director Rachel Podger as resident ensemble at her annual Brecon Baroque Festival. The international line-up consists of some of some of the leading lights in the period instrument world. Brecon Baroque specialises in the music of J.S. Bach and his contemporaries, mostly as a one-to-a-part ensemble based on the Cafe Zimmerman ensemble which Bach himself directed. They also appear as a small baroque orchestra for Vivaldi, Telemann, Purcell and Handel.
Contents and tracklist
Spotlight on this release
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Violin music by Bach and Vivaldi from Gil Shaham and Rachel Podger
9th Mar 2015
David listens to two new albums of violin music - Vivaldi concertos from Rachel Podger and Brecon Baroque, and Bach solo sonatas and partitas from Gil Shaham.
Awards and reviews
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Presto Recording of the Week9th March 2015
-
Sunday Times2015Albums of the Year
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BBC Music MagazineApril 2015Disc of the month
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Gramophone MagazineApril 2015Disc of the Month
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Presto Recordings of the YearFinalist 2015
April 2015
There's a sense of Podger and her players examining and analysing every note in their preparation, deciding on its role, and placing it carefully back into context, without ever disturbing the forward energy and integrity of the recorded performance...this recording of [the Concertos] outclasses any I've experienced.
CD Review 14th March 2015
Minimalist forces but maximum pleasure from the way in they explore every delicious detail in these 12 concertos, reacting to one another’s playing with freshness and delight that’s constantly engaging. It’s been captured in an excellent recording...I’ll be dipping into that again just for pure pleasure as soon as I can.
April 2015
There is plenty of detail, but it is natural and never fussy, and ornamentation is always clever, sometimes humorous, often delightful...What really shoots this recording straight to the top of the pile, however, is the sheer joy of it, the spontaneity and the tireless, surging musical energy of its many sudden feints and sallies.
9th March 2015
Podger and her Brecon Baroque players make it sound like the easiest thing in the world, dashing off ornaments and runs without a backward glance, and the ensemble (led by Podger from the violin) play as if they were one musician.
22nd March 2015
[Podger's] Brecon-based players adopt a “chamber” approach to these virtuosic “orchestral” works, which means intimacy in the rapt slow movements and sizzling dash in the allegros. Such originality explains why L’estro was the publication sensation of the first half of the 18th century.
22nd March 2015
This disproves the accusation that Vivaldi wrote the same concerto hundreds of times: even though strings are the only sonority...the combinations of one, two, and four violin soloists provide endlessly different colours which Brecon Baroque fully exploit...above all the electrifying drive of the famous No 8 leave[s] one breathless with admiration.
20th March 2015
You can’t imagine feathers getting ruffled by Rachel Podger’s approach to Vivaldi. Not that it’s remotely boring: as her fingers fly through the concerto 12-pack, L’Estro Armonico, your feet tap and your pulse quickens without the music being pushed to extremes
