This 2006 Decca collection of four sets of Vivaldi's violin concertos is dry, dry, dry. No, the music's not dry. True, Vivaldi was ordained a Catholic priest, but he was also born an Italian, and his music is suffused with the warmth of the sun, the tang of the grape, and the love of this life. What's dry are the performances.
Christopher Hogwood was a keenly intelligent English keyboard player who parlayed a talent for leadership into a career as a conductor of historically informed performances. After giving his attention first to Handel's choral works in the early '80s,
Hogwood turned to Vivaldi's instrumental works in the mid-'80s, and in Vivaldi as in Handel,
Hogwood emphasizes lean textures, clean tempos, and, above all, restrained expressivity, not qualities often associated with Vivaldi's music. With the highly skilled
Academy of Ancient Music and despite the brilliant playing of violin soloists
Simon Standage, Catherine Mackintosh, and especially
Monica Huggett,
Hogwood's Vivaldi is amazingly desiccated. His demonic D minor Allegros are denatured, his lyrical G major Andantes are nondescript, and his artfully intimate A major Adagios are simply dull. Deeper in Decca's vaults are recordings from the '70s of these concertos performed by the
Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields led by
Neville Marriner with
Hogwood as one of two harpsichordists. It must be acknowledged that the St. Martin Academy is playing modern not period instruments, but it must likewise be agreed that the playing is clear, warm, expressive, and very engaging, all qualities immediately associated with Vivaldi. And it must furthermore be admitted that the
Marriner's deep but detailed stereo sound is far more appealing than
Hogwood's clean but hard digital sound.