Listeners who haven't checked in on the
Naive
label's Vivaldi Edition lately are especially encouraged to hear this release by violinist
Julien Chauvin
and his orchestra
Le Concert de Loge
. Based on a huge cache of
Vivaldi
manuscripts unearthed in Turin, Italy, the series here reaches its
69th volume
, and there is not a hint of scraping the bottom of the barrel. Much of the music on these releases dates from the later parts of
's career, a generally underexposed part of his output. The music here dates from the 1720s, during which
interacted with the German violinist
Johann Georg Pisendel
. Some of the pieces were written for
Pisendel
, and the two obviously had a familiar relationship; at one point,
wrote "for the numbskulls" over some figured bass notations. Others were copied out by
or his musicians. All of the concertos are for a single violin with strings, and the prime characteristics are twofold. First,
was obviously delighted to find a violinist whom he could test to the maximum technically, and the virtuosity level is above average for
. Second, the pieces are excellent examples of
's later music, which wielded a still-underappreciated influence on the development of the Classical style. The outer movements are often strikingly discontinuous. Sample the first movement of the
Violin Concerto in D major, RV 226
, where the violin breaks into the orchestra's opening material with exuberant double stops.
Chauvin
and his good-sized group of musicians deliver vigorous, sparkling performances of music none of them had encountered before, and listeners, judging from the appearance of the album on classical best-seller charts in the fall of 2022, are equally excited to discover it. ~ James Manheim