An all-Vivaldi program. First Giardino Armonico, then Cecilia Bartoli, and now these guys: obviously there’s an Italian nationalist conspiracy to sell us on Vivaldi as the Original Baroque Master. “Listen to this!” they say, “It’s as good as Bach, and it doesn’t have the boring parts!”
And it’s hard to argue, when, like last night, they played things like the Concerto in D major for strings (RV 121) with a heart-stopping slow movement featuring a few delicate plucks of a lute. And the Sinfonia in B minor for strings (RV 168) with it’s folk-song swing.
After that, Giuliano Carmignola, the violin soloist, came out and the rest of the program was slightly weightier concerti. But only slightly. Vivaldi rages and storms, but his tempests are stage effects. The Baroque theatrical machinery always peeks out, but it’s so adorable you wouldn’t want anything else.
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