La Serenissima
is a
Vivaldi
-specialist group whose output has only accelerated, aided perhaps by the fact that director
Adrian Chandler
is said to have edited a concerto a day during COVID shutdowns. The group seems to find takers for everything they put out, and this energetic release made classical best-seller lists in the summer of 2024.
Vivaldi x2²
is a sequel to 2019's
Vivaldi x2
, an album of double concertos with which it shares double-Fiat graphics. There are more double concertos here, but as the title (perhaps) suggests, the repertory here even goes beyond doubles, offering a six-member solo group in the
Concerto for two violins, two oboes, two recorders, strings, and continuo, RV 557
, and even further in the final
Concerto Il Proteo ò il Mondo al Reverscio for violin, cello, two flutes, two oboes, harpsichord, strings, and continuo, RV 572 ("Proteus, or The World Turned Upside Down")
. This wild work refers to the Carnival season, and one can hear references to the season's anything-goes quality in the music.
Chandler
does well to substitute an organ for the harpsichord solo, adding possible wind textures to the already large textural palette. Many of the concertos were written for
's complement of youthful female soloists at the Ospedale della Pietà and reflect the atmosphere of creative exuberance there, but there is at least one late work, the
Concerto for two violins, strings, and continuo in B flat major, RV 524
, that shows traces of the emerging galant style. The pair's interplay is absorbing and entertaining, and although these works have been recorded before, there isn't a common one in the bunch, and even those with large
collections will find something new here. ~ James Manheim