Vivaldi - Cello Concerto RV418 [Wallfisch/ Kraemer-City Of London Sinfonia]Here's another set of Cello Concertos from Vivaldi, Wallfisch recorded four discs for Naxos, this is volume 3, and i believe it received a rosette in the Penguin Guide, but my opinion is that it's the least desirable disc in the set, in my mind volume 1 is easily the best if you want to sample his way with Vivaldi.
Raphael Wallfisch is English, born in 1953, he recorded this disc in 1994, even though the music is excellent, the booklet cover is poor, Naxos have produced some stinkers of cover art in their time, i guess this is of Venice [by Canaletto], thus linking it to Vivaldi, but Naxos have started to produce more inspiring photographs for their front covers lately, a nice and welcome move.
On this listening it was the Cello Concerto in A Minor [RV418], that caught my ears, and being in a minor key, means there's a degree of dissonance, i was mainly impressed with the opening first movement, there's a lovely sense of forward motion with the orchestral entry [0:00-0:32], especially at [0:04-0:12], those lovely bittersweet violins!, inbetween the cello solos, it's this orchestral tutti that makes the piece, and it comes back in the middle [1:04-1:26], and it ends on this wonderful orchestral tutti [3:26-3:57], each time the orchestral tutti comes around there's that lovely bit right near the start, from 3-11 seconds in, how a whole movement can turn / hinge on an ingenious phrase, the following Largo is quite dour, but the ending Allegro is quite bubbly, a very nice Cello Concerto.
Here's Sunme playing the first movement of RV418 on YouTube.
