Vivaldi: The Four Seasons (joshua Bell)

Joshua Bell, Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, John Constable

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons; Tartini: Sonata in G minor for Violin and Basso Continuo, "Devil's Trill Sonata"

This recording comes in a lovely package. The booklet has many pictures of the admittedly photogenic Joshua Bell - he’s 40 now, but still looks half his age. Additionally, there are four single cards for each season with the sonnets upon which the four remarkable Vivaldi concertos were based on one side and dreamy seasonal pictures on the other. The Four Seasons is one of the most recorded and recognizable works of the canon, certainly of the baroque era. For the great American violinist Joshua Bell, who is not known for his performances of baroque repertoire, the concertos present no particular technical challenges. Rather than throwing caution to the wind and really digging in though, there’s a certain lack of abandon to Bell’s playing. It’s lyrical and virtuosic when it needs to be, and stunningly so in places (most notably in the heart-breaking Largo of “Winter”). But overall, there’s a distance and reserve to his performance that doesn’t suit this passionate music. The orchestra is fantastic though, especially in the faster movements. They launch into the last movement of “Summer” with admirable recklessness and the outer movements of “Spring” depict the “sweet blossoming meadow” in a tangible way. The Tartini “Devil’s Trill” sonata is perfectly played, though again it almost sounds too easy for Bell. And here we need a more interesting harpsichord player and maybe another continuo player or two. At the very least a cello and lute would have added more colour to the performance. But that probably wouldn’t have occurred to Bell, demonstrating what a huge divide still exists between the worlds and approaches of “baroque” and “modern” players. Reviewed by Larry Beckwith. Reprinted from The Wholenote Magazine (www.thewholenote.com), Oct. 2008.

Price: $19.98