Italida - Works by Vivaldi, Tartini & Veracini
Benedetti; SCO / Curnyn
Decca 476 4342

Release date October 2011

Nicola Benedetti’s playing impresses more with each new recording. Her latest disc focuses on Italian Baroque violin repertoire, for which she uses a Baroque bow lent to her by her early music mentor, violinist Rachel Podger (although she continues to use metal strings on her Stradivarius). By cleverly interleaving concertos with sonata movements and two Vivaldi arias, she avoids giving the listener aural indigestion. Taking Vivaldi’s Summer from the Four Seasons as a starting point, Benedetti selected two further Vivaldi concerti that she felt were dramatic in a similar way: ‘...the A minor Concerto sounds to me like a wild storm that is brewing and doesn’t quite break, with intermittent rays of sunlight. The mood changes suddenly and without warning, and it always returns to an underlying rumble. The D major is extremely optimistic and virtuosic.‘ Indeed, the D major ‘Grosso Mogul’ that opens the disc is an astonishing work, the exuberant opening movement followed by a slow movement of quasi-gypsy violin improvisation that manages to retain a still, calm centre. The final Allegro pits crisp, enthusiastic orchestral tuttis against dazzling passagework and a fiendishly bravura cadenza with tumbling arpeggiated chords (all perfectly in tune) from the soloist. The two arias (Vedrò con mio diletto from Giustino, and the opening aria of Nullo in mundo pax sincera) transfer well to the violin and are played with great sensitivity. It’s difficult to believe that Benedetti has been studying baroque music for only three years, such is her grasp of the nuances of ornamentation and the virtuosic abandon often required. She also plays for much of the time with little or no vibrato, creating an exceedingly ghostly effect in Tartini’s Devil’s Trill sonata – although I would have preferred the sound of gut strings here. The Tartini Concerto in A minor is a good companion to the Vivaldi concertos – a more intimate piece, much softer in character. The disc finishes with one of the fieriest performances of Summer that I’ve heard, full of contrasts, the last movement in particular played with great verve by orchestra and soloist alike. Throughout, the SCO are alert and sensitive partners. Benedetti should be proud of this most enjoyable recording.

Anne McAlister