The era of extreme Vivaldi is upon us. Swiss-German flutist
Emmanuel Pahud is the principal flutist of the
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. That used to be a reliable indicator of a fairly conservative performance, but not these days --
Pahud teams up with the
Australian Chamber Orchestra and its iconoclastic director
Richard Tognetti for a disc of eight Vivaldi flute concertos (some of them originally for recorder or other instruments) that will keep you running for the volume button on the remote control. The performances are unusual ones in many ways, one being the prominent role taken by the orchestra; the Australian group emerges as something of an equal partner with
Pahud, not always phrasing material as he does, and drawing out effects in the several programmatic concertos included here to their maximum dimensions. The results are not really idiomatic to Vivaldi, but they do hold the listener's attention. The performance of the opening Flute concerto in F major, Op. 10, No. 1, RV 433, consists of a constant series of careening crescendos and decrescendos -- Vivaldi as Mannheim court composer, perhaps. Admittedly, it is a storm at sea that is being represented here, but the performance does not end up being coherent. In the two galant, mid-century-type concertos at the end of the disc, the dynamic extremes are more justifiable, but the opening movement of the Concerto in D major, RV 429, is jittery and driven rather than graceful. Reactions to subjective performances like these will be subjective themselves, and the performances cannot be faulted technically.
Pahud brings an effortless virtuosity to Vivaldi that until now has been the province mostly of violinists. Still, extensive sampling is advised even for those who have enjoyed the work of these performers in the past.