Affection and virtuosity combine to masterly effect
The Strad Issue: June 2025
Description: Affection and virtuosity combine to masterly effect
Musicians: Federico Guglielmo (violin) L’Arte dell’Arco
Works: Vivaldi: Violin Concertos: D minor RV237, G major RV314, D major RV205, G minor RV328, A major RV340
Catalogue number: CPO 5553792
Federico Guglielmo celebrates the close bond between Vivaldi and his pupil Pisendel with laudable accounts of five of the seven violin concertos that the Italian tailored to Pisendel’s performing qualities. He plays the outer movements with vitality, vigour and remarkable virtuosity, revelling in the technical challenges of the bariolage figuration in RV237’s first movement, partly ‘borrowed’ from a sonata by Westhoff, the varied bow-strokes and high-register passagework of RV205’s finale – negotiated with substantial accuracy – and the rapid flourishes of the pedal and unaccompanied cadenzas (including a stylish cadenza of his own for RV205’s finale).
His expressive, chromatic ‘note-bending’ sometimes seems overstated, especially in the opening movement of RV314; but his interpretations are otherwise thoroughly enlightened and warmly communicative. The slow movements are especially well shaped, sonorous and expressive; he conveys the lilt of RV340’s Siciliana with gentle sensitivity and displays an intuitive feeling for affecting ornamentation, notably in RV314 and the sparsely textured, treble-oriented RV205.
L’Arte dell’Arco’s minimal forces give maximum pleasure with alert accompaniments, the theorbo and harpsichord/chamber organ contributions providing welcome additional colour and often driving the music forward, as in RV237’s bustling opening movement. The well-balanced recording has just the right mix of clarity and bloom, but its 51-minute duration seems unnecessarily meagre.
ROBIN STOWELL
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