Description

Erato: Vivaldi — The Four Seasons / 2 Oboe Concertos (Audio CD)

Brand new! Factory packaged! As pictured! Buy with confidence!

Product Details:

Product Type: Audio CD
Brand / Label: Erato (Warner Classics & Jazz) — Maestro series
Composer: Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741)
Performers: Andrew Manze (violin), Marcel Ponseele (oboe), Ton Koopman (conductor)
Orchestra: Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra
Catalog Number: 2564 69173-9
UPC: 825646917396
Recording Year: 1996 (© 2009 reissue)
Genre: Classical / Baroque

Product Features

Format: CD
Discs: 1
Total runtime: approx. 56 minutes (56:25)
Recording: DDD
Made in the E.U.
Booklet text: English, French, German
Condition: Brand new, factory sealed

Overview

This is The Four Seasons played on period instruments, and the difference is audible from the first bars. Andrew Manze takes the solo violin with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra under Ton Koopman, and his reading leans into the music's drama — storms, birdsong, the chill of winter — without softening the edges.

The four concertos from Vivaldi's Op. 8 are all here: "La Primavera," "L'Estate," "L'Autunno," and "L'Inverno." Manze's phrasing is quick and conversational, the kind of playing that treats the famous score as living music rather than a museum piece.

Two oboe concertos round out the disc, with Marcel Ponseele as soloist — the A minor RV 461 and the D minor RV 454. They're a smart pairing: less familiar than the Seasons, but cut from the same baroque cloth, and they show off a warmer, reedier color against the violin's brightness. The 1996 Erato recording, reissued in 2009 on the Maestro line, is clean and close.

Interesting Facts

The Four Seasons are the first four concertos of Vivaldi's Op. 8 set, each paired with a descriptive sonnet that the music illustrates almost line by line.
Andrew Manze is now better known as a conductor, but built his early reputation as one of the leading period-instrument violinists of his generation.
Ton Koopman founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in 1979 and is a central figure in the historically informed performance movement.
Marcel Ponseele is a noted baroque oboist who also makes period oboes by hand.
This release appears on Warner's Maestro series, a budget reissue line drawing on the Erato and Teldec back catalogs.
The oboe concerto RV 454 shares its Op. 8 set with the Seasons, where it appears as No. 9.

Track Listing

The Four Seasons — Andrew Manze, violin 1–3. Concerto in E major, Op. 8 No. 1, RV 269 "La Primavera" (Spring) — 9:25 4–6. Concerto in G minor, Op. 8 No. 2, RV 315 "L'Estate" (Summer) — 10:05 7–9. Concerto in F major, Op. 8 No. 3, RV 293 "L'Autunno" (Autumn) — 11:27 10–12. Concerto in F minor, Op. 8 No. 4, RV 297 "L'Inverno" (Winter) — 8:55

Marcel Ponseele, oboe 13–15. Oboe Concerto in A minor, RV 461 — 8:46 16–18. Oboe Concerto in D minor, Op. 8 No. 9, RV 454 — 7:48