Antonio Vivaldi
Stabat Mater - Nisi Dominus- Concerto in G Minor

LA RECENSIONE

An album nothing short of sublime is this "Stabat Mater - Nisi Dominus - Concerto in G Minor" by A. Vivaldi (1678-1741) which I now present to you (Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, from 1976!!).

My personal approach to this album (also rare) dates back to 1993, when I listened to it "captivated" for the first time in a gothic bar inside a medieval castle near Nimes, on the French Riviera. I was literally "enchanted" by such beauty: I had never heard anything so magical and engaging.

From the very beginning I was struck by the majesty and transcendence that these pieces conveyed to the surrounding air, to the whole environment and to the people with whom they entered into "communion." I swear: even the plants seemed more lush and beautiful to me for so much joy! An album nothing short of "heavenly" that is able to convey a sense of "harmony" and "universality of spirit" like few others. The work of "this" Vivaldi, supported by the noble and "spectacular" singing of James Bowman, countertenor, and backed by the Academy of Ancient Music, conducted by Maestro Christopher Hogwood, manages to create a "unicum" of rare purity, where each instrument lightly and disenchantedly backs the gentle yet always prominent singing of this "sacred monster" of opera, with a vocal range and interpretative class above the average of the role.

The harmonic scales in counterpoint between violin and voice in the piece "Quis est homo" are splendid, but generally, it's the whole Opera that exudes delicacy and enchantment without overproduction or bombastic effects of "loaded" orchestras proving who knows what. Here, everything sounds light, impalpable, airy... you never hear more than three instruments overlapping, and above all, I repeat ad nauseam, the beauty of this androgynous voice that lightly embroiders enchanting and graceful scores like butterflies in love flying in the backlight of a spring sunset.

I'm not going to delve too much into technicalities and technical data (in my opinion marginal) also because I'm really terrible at these things. Recommended tracks: the first gloomy "Stabat Mater dolorosa" and the opening of the "4th of the Concerto in G minor", but trust me, it is all SPECTACULAR with no moments of faltering or fatigue!! I just say to get this album AT ANY COST, paying gold for it or, at most, stealing it (if necessary) or burning it from the dad of one of your friends, and I challenge anyone, I repeat ANY-ONE, to say that "it is not beautiful" or that it does not "exude poetry": I even bet my portion of expired Ciappi (that Punisher buys me with the 3-for-2 and hands me every morning... that miser!)

Truly a... Good listening (and it's not JUST a wish!). Bau Bye.