Vivaldi - Four Seasons

Review by James Leonard Of the 29 million recordings of Vivaldi's perennial masterpiece the Four Seasons, this astoundingly beautiful, astonishingly virtuosic recording by Gottfried von der Goltz and the Freiburger Barockorchester with Andrew Lawrence-King directing the Harp Consort on Deutsche Harmonia Mundi runs a little bit back from the head of the pack. Because, with 29 million recordings, it's hard to take the lead. So while von der Goltz plays with a piquant tone and a pungent technique, plus enough panache to put across even the most hoary old phrases; and the Barockorchester plays with superb poise and supreme skill, plus enough tone color to shade every subtlety of the Four Seasons; and Deutsche Harmonia Mundi's sound has enough polish and punch, plus enough presence, to make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end, there are still a good two-dozen recordings as fine as this one. What does set this recording apart from all the other recordings of the Four Seasons, however, is the plethora of fillers: a pleasurable "Il Piacere," a tempestuous "La tempesta di mare," and a picturesque "Sonnetti Dimostrativi" for the fourth season. Because while there may be 29 million recordings of the Four Seasons, there are few that offer filler, and fewer still that offer filler so fitting. On balance, if you can only hear one copy of the Four Seasons and you want to get as much music as possible on the disc, this is the disc to get.