The CD covers for Naïve's
Vivaldi concerto series are pure Parisian eye candy, with impossibly beautiful models wearing modern clothing (if any) but posed in quasi-mythological images evocative of the themes of Baroque art. The good news is that, once snagged by these covers, the listener's attention will be rewarded with a superb set of performances here. This disc gathers a group of seven
Vivaldi concertos that have remained mostly obscure because of their odd soloist forces. All involve one or more oboes or a bassoon, with strings and continuo; the RV 559 and RV 560 concertos are for two oboes and two clarinets, and RV 566 is for the baffling solo group of two violins, two recorders, two oboes, and a bassoon. In the hands of the Italian period-instrument group
Zefiro and its leader,
Alfredo Bernardini, everything comes together. There are unknown riches in the music; try the outer movements of the Concerto for bassoon, strings, and continuo, RV 497, for examples of
Vivaldi's harmonic daring at its most roller-coaster-like. And
Zefiro makes perfectly clear what
Vivaldi had in mind with the large group of soloists in RV 566, a study in shifting timbres. The group as a whole gives
Vivaldi's music the brilliant, glittering quality that brings out its rhythmic intensity, and the soloists expertly handle some very athletic lines on authentic instruments, including, in one case, an actual 1730 oboe from Milan. The sound environment of the San Salvatore a Rodengo church in Brescia is ideal, with just enough extramusical instrument noise to lend immediacy but not so much as to distract. Note to presenters: get this group out on the road in the U.S. and England, playing this music on university campuses -- the distance between
Vivaldi and the motor-rhythmic, kinetic, timbrally oriented electronic dance music that many young people listen to is not so great. Note to buyers: even in a crowded marketplace of
Vivaldi discs, this one's a real standout.