This album from the Quebec City Baroque group Les Violons du Roy is titled simply Vivaldi. You don't get quite the range implied; the program consists mostly of concertos with one instrumental sinfonia from an opera. But it is a delightfully diverse set, including big Handelian outdoor-oriented pieces with horns; pastoral concertos for multiple winds; and intricate, multiple-violin pieces including a lithe reading of the familiar Concerto for four violins, strings, and continuo, Op. 3, No. 10 (RV 580). Les Violons du Roy, ...
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This album from the Quebec City Baroque group Les Violons du Roy is titled simply Vivaldi. You don't get quite the range implied; the program consists mostly of concertos with one instrumental sinfonia from an opera. But it is a delightfully diverse set, including big Handelian outdoor-oriented pieces with horns; pastoral concertos for multiple winds; and intricate, multiple-violin pieces including a lithe reading of the familiar Concerto for four violins, strings, and continuo, Op. 3, No. 10 (RV 580). Les Violons du Roy, under their longtime assistant conductor Mathieu Lussier, eschew the high-octane approach of contemporary Italian groups, and one can wish for the syncopations to rock a bit more when they are essential to the structure of a movement. But the group is quick and holds together well. Sample the little-played, three-movement Sinfonia from the opera La verità in cimento (tracks 17-19): the opening movement is a study in register and dynamics of which the total serialists would have been...
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