Search - Vivaldi, Huggett, Kraemer :: Vivaldi: La Cetra (Op.9)

Vivaldi's violin concertos - pure baroque amusement

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 04/23/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Monica Huggett?s Vivaldi recordings with Nicholas Kraemer?s Raglan Baroque Players are always a great pleasure to listen to. The ?Four Seasons? recording (coupled with other concertos from Vivaldi?s opus 8) is, in my opinion, one of the best available today. The complete recording of Vivaldi?s opus 9 violin concertos, known as ?La Cetra?, is also eminently worth hearing, although Vivaldi was here possibly not quite so inspired as with his previous work: for the non-expert, it is certainly not easy to keep the twelve concertos separated in one?s mind, and despite some strong movements the whole does have a certain ?same-ishness? about it, each concerto consisting of three movements in the typical fast ? slow ? fast pattern common in 18th century Venice (only the fifth concerto has a slow introduction). Not only is Monica Huggett?s violin-playing a real revelation, the basso continuo is equally brilliant with, amongst other things, some marvellous theorbo accompaniments. Unfortunately, the Virgin Veritas re-release offers no information whatsoever on the names of the musicians or the instruments, and the accompanying text on Vivaldi?s music is far too short to be anything but a brief introduction. The recording was made in 1986 at St. Giles? Church in London?s Cripplegate, originally for a company called Shogun Music (and later released on licence to EMI and Virgin). There is some background tape noise which can be a little annoying when listening via headphones, but in general the sound quality is more than adequate and provides almost two hours of baroque amusement in its purest form."

Another well played Vivaldi set from Monica Huggett

Mike Birman | Brooklyn, New York USA | 05/30/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The 12 concertos of La Cetra Op.9 were published in 1729 and were Vivaldi's last significant set of printed concertos. Their compilation and publication are closely tied to his friendship with Emperor Charles VI, a rather gifted amateur composer and performer with whom Vivaldi had crossed paths while in Vienna in the mid 1720s. Vivaldi's reputation in Vienna was quite high by this time and Charles held the composer in high esteem, spending a great deal of time with him. The usually taciturn Emperor reportedly spoke more in 3 days with Vivaldi than in years with his ministers and advisers. So satisfying was their relationship, Vivaldi dedicated the La Cetra set to Charles. Claims that the La Cetra Op.9 set represents lesser inspiration than his previous work should be tempered by this dedication: Vivaldi would hardly offer anything other than his finest work to an Emperor.



La Cetra made fewer demands on the Royal mind: it is less complex or learned, perhaps, than Vivaldi's earlier sets. That said, the 6th and 12th concertos feature scordatura or re-tuning of the solo violin for the purposes of creating special sound effects, extending the violin's normal range and easing the difficulties of passages that are hard to bow. Scordatura was widely used in some fiendishly complex violin music written by the great Bohemian violinist, Heinrich Biber. Vivaldi's music is written in his mature style. It is rhythmically propulsive and highly energetic in the fast movements, often contrasted with the quiet lyrical expressiveness and deep pathos of the slow. There is a brightness and a sonic lustre to the melodies, an almost childlike simplicity that is often found in the late works of great composers.



Monica Huggett and the Raglan Baroque Players, under the direction of Nicholas Kraemer, play with grace and style. All of Vivaldi's melodic lines are clearly delineated, dynamics are properly emphasized so that the music is expressive and instrumentally brilliant. Although recorded in 1986 the sound is good: a little thin on the bottom, perhaps. There is a slight amount of noise in the background, but nothing that is really distracting. Given the high quality of Virgin's presentation and the bargain price, you can hardly go wrong in choosing this set. If your budget requires a certain degree of care but you still wish to flesh-out your Vivaldi collection, you could do a lot worse than choosing Monica Huggett's Op.8 set along with this Op.9. For approximately the cost of a single full price CD, you would have 4 CDs and more than 4 hours of splendid Vivaldi. Not bad!



Mike Birman"

Very good Vivaldi

Ross Kennett | Narooma, NSW Australia | 02/09/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Vivaldi's 12 concertos Opus 9 was his last set of published concertos. They were dedicated to the Emperor Charles VI, which indicates that Vivaldi thought they were excellent works as he probably saw Charles VI as a prospective employer. They are typical of Vivaldi with virtuosic outer movements and lyrical slow movements. The chamber organ replaces the usual harpsichord in the continuo, which softens the music and makes the added lute very effective in the slow movements. The playing by the under-rated Monica Huggett with the Raglan Baroque is excellent and the sound quality is acceptable despite a bit of tape recorder rumble which is most noticeable at the very beginning. The cover notes are barely adequate, they fail to inform the reader of the use of the organ: why is this so often the case with re-releases?

It has been a little hard to give it a rating, half marks are not available, but have decided on 5, perhaps the super bargain price helped."