William Hong ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>Barbara Tan wrote:
>
>>Looking for it, raises some wider questions.  Of the many modern
>>recordings, are there recommendations from the group for Vivaldi's Four
>>Seasons, either on modern or period instrumentation?
>
>(pace Deryk Barker and his well-known dislike of this work's overplayed
>status)

I seem to encounter it every time O go into the supermarket....last time
I looked in Schwann (1993 I think) there were over 80 versions in the
catalogue.

>While I've never even tried an exhaustive survey of the available
>recordings, my current favorite on period instruments is that by Giardino
>Armonico, on Teldec.  Very colorful, take-no-prisoners playing.  The
>opening of the Winter concerto sounds more like Ligeti or Penderecki to me!

The trouble with this bunch is that they completely ignore the character
of the music; the passage where you can hear the rain on the roof sounds
more like a train.

I'd go for Alice Harnoncourt and whatever Nikolaus's bunch were called
on Teldec. One of the few versions that can rekindle my enthusiasm.

Deryk Barker
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