Review: Rachel Podger's Classy Vivaldi Boxed

Vivaldi: Violin Concertos Opp. 3, 4 and 9 + The Four Seasons and Miscellaneous Concerto. Rachel Podger (violin), Various Ensembles, Channel Classics (7 CDs)

[@EnvironmentalArtist]

I absolutely loved all of these recordings and have been collecting them since the time they were first issued.

[@KingOuf1er]

Glad you’re an admirer of Rachel, whose family home is walking distance from mine. I hope you’ll talk about her latest record which should be right up your street: CPE Bach Violin and Piano Sonatas - I have ordered it, and have listened to it on Presto Streaming: seems mighty fine to me! Congrats on the new additions to your family!

[@aaronclaus7261]

I heard Podger live recently, what a star! I'm glad her recordings are getting good releases.

[@petertaylor9481]

I've recently decided that Vivaldi was a choral / operatic composer who also wrote a lot of concertos. His operas in particular are marvelously exhilarating, full of vocal pyrotechnics. The versions by Ensemble Matheus / Spinosi are completely riveting. I'd love you to review some of these masterpieces at some stage.

[@wungabunga]

Of course he wasn’t meant to be a choral composer and sort of fell into it (as per my understanding). For me too he is a masterful vocal/sacred composer.

[@langsamwozzeck]

Something I'd love for you to do sometime is an "essential Vivaldi (excluding The Four Seasons)" recordings survey. You had mentioned L'Estro Armonico in your "If I Could Only Choose One" chat, which was terrific, but it made me realize that for such a household name, I have very little knowledge of his compositional output. It doesn't help that the man about wrote 500 concertos and almost 50 operas -- where does one even begin?

[@philippecassagne3192]

Very good suggestion ! Such a survey should cover his instrumental music, his operas, serenatas, cantatas, and his religious works. A wonderful and not well known music to explore !

[@carlcurtis]

Thank you! I'm one of the many who asked for this review--although I'll admit I didn't wait to hear from you. I bought it last week (along with the Biondi set--why not have both?).

[@richardfrankel6102]

You're so right that Vivaldi can take a bit of roughing up. I suppose this is why Claudio Scimone, who elsewhere could seem almost crude, was so wonderfully lively in Vivaldi.

[@philippecassagne3192]

I never found better interpretations of these concertos than by Hogwood or by Pinnock : they constitute, to my point of view, a wonderful balance between older interpretations (I Musici, Scimone ...), and more recent ones (Biondi, Rachel Podger...). But, of course, it is a matter of personal taste.

[@jorge5150]

I have all those Podger albums on their individual releases. For Vivaldi my favorite players are Biondi, Podger, Carmignola and Guglielmo.

[@luukmarcus]

Those are my favorites as well. However, my favorite+ is Chauvin with Le Concert de la Loge (2 records on Naïve).