español | français Medieval Renaissance Baroque Clasicism Opera  5 STARS All periods MEDIEVAL RENAISSANCE BAROQUE CLASICISM OPERA ** SINFONIE E CONCERTI, OP. 2 TOMASO ALBINONI Giorgio Sasso Insieme Strumentale di Roma Stradivarius STR 33519 1998 - 78:58 min. Is it my imagination or has there over the last few years been a proliferation of Italian period-instrument ensembles, all infused with the most superior technical and stylistic discernment? This is certainly a far cry from the technically adroit, albeit not particularly stylistically aware, modern instrument groups of decades past, such as I Musici or I Virtuosi di Roma. The present ensemble from Rome is an especially good example of performance practises as understood today. These first recorded versions of Albinoni's complete Op. 2 string Sinfonias (Sonatas) and Concertos are given minimalist performances with one player to a part, certainly one of several options. The six da chiesa sonatas, rich in their four-movement, five-part texture with parts for two violas, may remind one at times of Corelli (the finale of No. 5 for that matter sounds like a prototype for the last movement of Bach's Third Brandenburg Concerto). The Concertos, on the other hand, are generally three-movement concertante works, with the solos falling to the two violins. Seldom is a movement from either group longer than three minutes, a whole piece no more than nine minutes and more often four or five. Rhythms in fast movements are energetic, Vivaldian in style without quite the same predicatable sequences; slow movements are lyrical but of course totally minus the bathos of the infamous "Albinoni Adagio". The performers make the most of Italian spirit and songfulness with natural, not forced tempos throughout. The reproduction is first class. IGOR KIPNIS ABOUT US | CONTRIBUTE   web map - home page - cover Legal warning Copyright 2003, Goldberg. info@goldberg-magazine.com