That Naïve, four years and some 30 volumes into their Vivaldi Edition, have only now issued a first disc of violin concertos, suggests I may not have been alone.

With this CD, though, Enrico Onofri and Academia Montis Regalis remind us that Vivaldi could be a thrilling composer for the violin and was certainly an extraordinary player: one example is the opening "Grosso Mogul" (a reference to India’s Mughal emperors), with its scintillating ensembles and two bravura cadenzas for solo violin.

Onofri refers in the booklet to the "complex states of mind" that Vivaldi’s music explores, while Olivier Fourès notes its theatricality, calling Vivaldi a virtuoso of illusion. The nicknames of the concertos here do imply programmatic intent and Onofri seizes the chance to illustrate the dramatic scenes and psychological portraits that Vivaldi paints, brilliantly conjuring paroxysms of anxiety in "L’Inquietudine", the scurrying flights of "La Caccia", and the hushed mysteries of "Il Riposo", with a mercurial deftness as vivid as it is tender.

Academia Montis Regalis, fleet and supple, follow his every step, and even match his exemplary control of dynamics.

My one cavil concerns the ungenerous playing time: with over 100 violin concertos still to come, Naïve’s meagre ration of just six per disc will surely deter many potential collectors.
GRAHAM LOCK

Concerti per Violini I, 'La Caccia'
ANTONIO VIVALDI
Enrico Onofri
Academia Montis Regalis
Naïve OP 30417
2005 - 55:36 min.

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