Nobody would accuse violinist Giuliane Carmignola, harpsichordist and conductor Andrea Marcon or the Venice Baroque Orchestra of softness or sentimentality. In this 2006 recording of five violin concertos by Vivaldi, no trace of vibrato or portamento touches their bows and even crescendos are treated as if contagious. There’s no doubting Carmignola energy or virtuosity. He tears into the works with the kind of ardor most violinists reserve for Paganini. And there’s no doubting Marcon and the Venetian orchestra’s ability or sincerity. Marcon leads as if Vivaldi’s concertos were on the same aesthetic level as Bach’s concertos and the orchestra performs as if flat necks and cat gut strings were all they had ever held. But, apparently, if Carmignola and Marcon are going to perform Vivaldi, they’re going to perform him their way, extremely expressively, extraordinarily dynamically and incandescently brilliantly. These are unquestionably among the most exciting performances of Vivaldi concertos ever recorded – just listen to Marcon’s exuberant finger glissando at the close of the C major Concerto; it’ll send a chill down your spine – but only those who can surrender their preconceptions about Vivaldi may come in the long run to do more than admire them. Archiv’s sound is crisp, clean, colorful and, for all intents and purposes, real.
