Eckart Haupt is the leader of the Dresdener Barocksolisten, a group drawn from the ranks of
Dresden Staatskapelle that plays on vintage Italian instruments. So far its entire recorded output consists of Baroque flute music, a limited pool of repertoire as the transverse flute wasn't introduced until about 1727 and the Baroque era itself had less than 30 years to last.
Vivaldi was one of the first composers on the scene in terms of writing music for the new flute, which for him would have been a considerable improvement over the wooden "German flute" (i.e., a recorder) that preceded it. Berlin Classics' Antonio Vivaldi: Concerti per flauti collects seven concerti composed by
Vivaldi specifically for the transverse flute.
Haupt is certainly a strong player, and Antonio Vivaldi: Concerti per flauti is a very nicely made recording -- warm, full bodied, and dark, and the flute is never shrill. The first three concerti, though, are chamber concerti, whereas the remaining four ask for a complement of strings, and one cannot hear the difference between the ripieno in the latter concertos and the chamber players in the former. Although such a complement is duly listed, it almost seems as though they are not there. The best performance found here is of the Concerto in A minor, RV 108; it is rich, luscious, and lovely. Nevertheless, apart from that and the already familiar "Il Gardellino" Concerto in D Op. 10/3, there isn't anything that seems to make the concertos stand apart from one another; it all sounds the same.
Antonio Vivaldi: Concerti per flauti will be a boon for flute players, owing to
Haupt's virtuosity, and it would make for a great
Vivaldi disc to play in a restaurant, as it only seldom veers to the left or the right of center. General tastes, though, will find it ingratiating and superficially pretty.