Fire Beneath My Fingers: Concertos By Vivaldi

Violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock is fantastic on this recording!

Musica Pacifica takes its name from the Ocean by which the members live, but there's nothing pacific about their performance of these six Italian concerti. Instead, by their choice of repertoire and by their stylistic decisions, these musicians seem determined to put the swagger back in Baroque. Remember, Italy around 1700 was still a culture of arrogance, where grandees in black velvet carried swords. Musica Pacifica's fiery performances would have served the young blades of Venice and Naples for a ball or for a brawl.Much of the 'Fire Beneath the Fingers' comes from the red-hot recorder chops of Judith Linsenberg. A Fulbright Scholar to Austria, Linsenberg earned a Soloist Diploma with Highest Honors from the Vienna Academy of Music. She performs regularly with Philharmonia Baroque and the American Bach Soloists, and teaches at Stanford and the San Francisco Conservatory. Her agility on the soprano recorder, on Giuseppe Sammartini's Concerto in F Major, is phenomenal; she's truly a flame-thrower of passionate passage work.Elizabeth Blumenstock is a soloist and concert-mistress with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. She's adept at a dark, masculine style of fiddling, exactly suited to the music of Giuseppe Tartini, whose Concerto in A Major she performs dramatically on this CD. She's also a wonderfully supportive ensemble player; it's her ability to complement the phrasing of Linsenberg's recorder that makes Musica Pacifica so tight in ensemble.Michael McCraw is a guest artist with Musica Pacifica, but his robust bassoon playing throws wood on their fire. McCraw is the former principal basson with Tafelmusik Orchestra of Toronto, and currently director of the Early Music Institute at Indiana University. The keyless Baroque bassoon he plays on these concerti is quite a different horn from the modern bassoon, not as mechanically crisp but warmer and more voice-like in timbre. McCraw matches Linsemberg's alto recorder lick for lick on the Vivaldi sonata and concerto for bassoon and recorder. Then McCraw exploits the reedy eloquence of his instrument, which has the raw verve of a bass saxophone at times, on Vivaldi's Concerto in B-flat Major.MP is an ensemble not afraid to make a statement. Listen to what they do with Vivaldi's familiar "La Tempesta di Mare". It doesn't sound like any other performance you're likely to hear, partly because MP has combined versions of the concerto from different manuscript sources and partly because they've taken Baroque liberty to choose their instrumentation. Their Tempesta is truly stormy - big and bold, with the bassoon pounding the sea wall of continuo and the recorder, replacing the usual breathy flute, flashing lightning bolts of ornamentation through the churning strings.This is a recording that will force some listeners to re-evaluate the music of the Red Priest and his contemporaries. Certainly there was elegance and symmetry in the Baroque, but there was also flamboyance and flair. Musica Pacifica blends both temperaments in a stunning performance.

I read a fantastic review of this and on that basis I decided to buy it (had just heard of that Canadian baroque violinist). It was supposed to be Sammartini (first name listed), but it's mostly Vivaldi whose music I DEFINITELY wouldn't have bought a disc of, though I'm happy to listen sometimes or play him with a group of other musicians. Very much regret having bought it, a waste of money, and will stop me impulse buying any CD in future (that's a good outcome!). The playing itself sounds skilled, the musicians are enthusiastic, I just don't like the music and wouldn't have bought it if I'd known it was mostly Vivaldi, rather than one final piece by Vivaldi ((what I thought I was buying).