“what you get there is a performance of profound artistry… the subtleties in this disc just take my breath away”
Gramophone
April 2015
“(ces concertos) de haute virtuosité et presque tous composés dans sa maturité tardive forment la quitessence de son style ultime…le violon, très personnel, reste poétique dans les mouvements vifs, Europa Galante entretient des échanges équilibrés avec son mentor, le largo hypnotique du RV273, come l’andante du RV367, sensible et tendre, l’humilité du Largo du RV189 sont de moments de sincérité dont Biondi nous priva longtemps. Il revisite le RV367 mieux articulé, mieux phrasé, riche d’une maturité stylistique de presque trente ans.”
Diapason
Mai 2015
2015
“Biondi delivers extrovert accounts which are full of perception, imagination, clarity and vitality, and often astonishing in their technical dexterity. He virtually spits out much of the passagework and even resorts to thrown bowings… dynamics are extreme and articulation muscular and dramatic. Slow movements are conveyed with shapely phrasing, flowing lyricism, inventive ornamentation and subtle expression.”
The Strad
June 2015
EDITOR’S NOTES
The six concertos on this disc are all drawn from a collection sold in 1741 – very cheaply it seems – to the count Vinciguerra Collalto, and today kept in Brno, and bear witness to Vivaldi’s late style (as it headed in the direction of Tartini and Locatelli).
Biondi’s selection of concertos provides him full scope to portray the vivid and masterfully-conceived imagery, the compendium of violin techniques and the opportunities for improvisation implicit in Vivaldi’s maturity.
Discography
