Europa Galante/Biondi
(Glossa)
In the 18th century, the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice acquired an international reputation for its music, the quality of the young female musicians it trained there, and for the composers associated with it, especially Vivaldi. One of the most exceptional of those foundling musicians was Chiara, who was left on the steps of the Pietà as a two-month-old baby in 1718, studied the violin there under one of Vivaldi's pupils, and by the age of 21 had become one of the finest players in Europe. A number of composers, including Vivaldi and one of his successors Antonio Martinelli, wrote concertos for her, many of which Chiara collected in a diary that survives in the Pietà archives. Europa Galante's disc is centred upon three of those concertos, one for violin by Vivaldi, and works for violin and for viola d'amore by Martinelli, framed by sequences of sinfonias for strings, by Porta, Porpora, Latilla, Perotti and Bernasconi, that Chiara herself would have played with the orchestra of the ospedale. Fabio Biondi himself plays the solo parts, in his usual robustly stylish way. It's all a bit hard-driven at times, but with the accompanying documentary on DVD it makes a useful package.
Rating: 3/5 Reported by guardian.co.uk 6 hours ago.
(Glossa)
In the 18th century, the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice acquired an international reputation for its music, the quality of the young female musicians it trained there, and for the composers associated with it, especially Vivaldi. One of the most exceptional of those foundling musicians was Chiara, who was left on the steps of the Pietà as a two-month-old baby in 1718, studied the violin there under one of Vivaldi's pupils, and by the age of 21 had become one of the finest players in Europe. A number of composers, including Vivaldi and one of his successors Antonio Martinelli, wrote concertos for her, many of which Chiara collected in a diary that survives in the Pietà archives. Europa Galante's disc is centred upon three of those concertos, one for violin by Vivaldi, and works for violin and for viola d'amore by Martinelli, framed by sequences of sinfonias for strings, by Porta, Porpora, Latilla, Perotti and Bernasconi, that Chiara herself would have played with the orchestra of the ospedale. Fabio Biondi himself plays the solo parts, in his usual robustly stylish way. It's all a bit hard-driven at times, but with the accompanying documentary on DVD it makes a useful package.
Rating: 3/5 Reported by guardian.co.uk 6 hours ago.