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Sat, 02 Sep 2006

Vivaldi Cello

Antonio Vivaldi, Cello Concertos
Jonathan Cohen
The King's Consort
Robert King
LP, Hyperion

Vivaldi wrote some twenty-eight cello concertos. He was a famous violin virtuoso and a better than passable viol player but was not known to have played the cello at all.

The use of the cello as a solo instrument started in Northern Italy in the late 1600s but it was the Venetians who brought it on from simple parts to the more complex found in these concertos. For those who think the Four Seasons is a little too laden with parlour tricks and don't know much of his other works, this might be a fine place to discover his graceful phrasings. It's also a good place to discover that the cello is not necessarily a lugubrious voice of angstful doom.

This is a nice production, as you'd expect from Hyperion, and the playing is first class. (Baron K)

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