Search - Antonio Vivaldi, Gérard Lesne, Fabio Biondi :: Vivaldi - Salve Regina / Biondi · Il Seminario musical · Lesne

Early master performances by Favio Biondi and Gérard Lesne.

Baroque and opera freak | Hong Kong | 03/16/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The discography of Vivaldi's sacred music has long been dominated by mythical recordings that have tempered the explorative ardor of new performers. Over a period of thirty years, the historic recordings of Angelo Ephrikian, the compendious complete recording by Vittorio Negri and the legendary disc of the Stabat Mater and the Nisi Dominus by James Bowman and Christopher Hogwood have paralyzed musicians and labels alike. The catalogue is encumbered by a plethora of Glorias and a sorry crop of stereotypical programs, repeating yet another version of the Sinfonia and the Sonata al Santo Sepulcro as filler on a disc with a new Stabat Mater or Nisi Dominus, while so many of Vivaldi's sacred masterpieces remain in the shadows.

But some conductors have dared record more original programs, such as Jean-Claude Malgoire whose Vespers for the Nativity of the Virgin on Auvidis is one of the finest recordings of Vivaldi's music in the past decade. But the boldest and most accomplished is certainly the recording of sacred works for alto and double orchestra by Gérard Lesne and Fabio Biondi. These two performers, the former French and the latter Italian, still at the beginnings of their brilliant careers, seem to have focused all their talent and sensitivity in this rediscovery of two little-known Salve Reginas by Vivaldi and the brilliant Introduzione al Misere, Non in pratis, in a performance that is difficult to exceed, both in purely musical quality and in emotion. The tender warmth of Lesne's voice, at its finest, supported by the sensual energy and incisive sensitivity of the young Biondi, infuses an exceptional level of inspiration into these works. The subtle balance of these sacred works, which shift between prayer and drama, meditation and joy, is explored extravagantly. FRÉDERIC DELAMÉA (in Goldberg, The early-music portal)

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