Italy. Home to the spicy arrabiata pasta sauce made with tomatoes and dried chillis, and also home to fierily explosive baroque music. I’m not entirely convinced we needed that link in order to best appreciate or understand these five works presented by the Freiburger Barockorchester, but there’s no question that this programme fulfils its aim to showcase the blazing, virtuosic concerto style of eighteenth century Italy, while highlighting the influence it had on German composers, represented here by Telemann.
So on the Italian side, that means Platti’s Concerto in G Minor for Oboe, Strings and Continuo I 47, Vivaldi’s Concerto in E-flat Major for Bassoon, Strings and Continuo RV 483 and Francesco Geminiani’s Concerto Grosso in D Minor for Two Violins, Cello, Strings and Continuo, “La Follia”, after Corelli's famous Sonata No. 12, Op. 5; and beyond fieriness, the additional draw of these three works is both how distinct they are from each other, and how representative of their respective composers voices. Then as for Telemann’s Italian-inspired works (and it works particularly well to have them sitting as the programme’s outer pillars), there’s the Sinfonia in D Major for Two Horns, Strings and Continuo, TWV 52:D2 and his “Grillen-Symphonie” Sinfonia in G Major for piccolo, chalumeau, double-Bass, strings and continuo.
You can always count on the FBO for sprightly tempi and classily neat precision, and that holds true here. In general, these are readings at the smoothly elegant end of period performance spectrum, which is exactly the quality you want for Platti’s light grace in particular. They do also let rip at points too, though, in their own elegant way. I’m thinking especially of their horns through the first of the Telemann sinfonias, who serve up merry virtuosity for the third movement Allegro, and bring real swagger and flourish to their final Allegro assai. There’s equally some fabulous bassoon work in the Vivaldi, while the Grillen-Symphonie or “Cricket Symphony” – incidentally one that Telemann himself jokingly described on the manuscript as being “in the Italian, English, Scottish and Polish styles” – makes for a properly zesty closing romp. © Charlotte Gardner/Qobuz