Donald Satz wrote:

>Roberto Strappafelci wrote:
>
>>BTW, it is the second time in the last few days that Vivaldi has been held
>>up as a negative example.
>
>This happens often with Vivaldi.  Some composers just don't get the
>respect they deserve, and/or they get tagged with a negative label such as
>Vivaldi's having written the same work so-many times.  I've always thought
>he wrote multiple works, but what do I know.

I have always loved Vivaldi and grew up on I Musici.  I still cherish their
recordings, especially the ones with Felix Ayo as soloist.  In the last
decade or so I started to care less for Vivaldi, or at any rate to be less
involved.  Sometimes I played I Musici but not often.  Until about a year
ago when I suddenly heard *Il Giardino Armonico* (on TV) and nearly fell
off my chair from sheer amazement.  What these people brought to Vivaldi
was something I really did not know and I heard the music afresh all over
again.  Something like that happened with *I Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca*.
Of course I immediately bought some CD's by these ensembles.  The funny
thing is that I still like I Musici's Vivaldi a lot because of something
like a *classical clarity*.  The HIP-ensembles mentioned above don't share
this at all.  Their Vivaldi is very adventurous and dramatic if not
outright Romantic, about the opposite one would expect from comparing, say,
Bach's Saint Matthew with Herreweghe's...

Philip