Vivaldi Album / Cecilia Bartoli, Giovanni Antonini
What is so great about Bartoli is her inquisitive mind. Who has ever met such a prima donna who, for a recording, would even look through a composer’s manuscripts (primary sources), and sometimes “discover” new compositions for herselfe in library? She has almost even ventured into the realm of the scholarly. Bartoli released “Vivaldi Album” in 1999 and in 2018 the “Antonio Vivaldi”. “Vivaldi Album” was recorded with Il Giardino Armonico directed by Giovanni Antonini.
The first piece, “aura al sussurrar,” is the opening chorus from the pastoral opera “Dorilla in the Storm. The familiar theme is the spring melody from the concerto “The Four Seasons”. The second piece “Dopo un orrida procella” is a coloratura aria that opens with two wild sounded hunting horns. Not a few of the pieces on the CD, including this one, were composed for castrato. The third piece, “Di due rai languir costante,” accompanied by two sopranino recorders and bass pizzicato, is from an unknown opera; the sixth piece, “Alma oppressa” a very Vivaldian melody accompanied by string orchestra, sounds like a violin concerto. The eleventh piece “Gelido in ogni vena” is again from the concerto “The Four Seasons”, this time with ritornello from the winter. And The CD closes with the gorgeous aria “Di trombe guerriere” for trumpet, oboe and timpani.
