Vivaldi rediscovered and reinvented

Abstract

Precisely because music is a recreative art, early music carries the perennial risk—or, if one prefers, offers the perennial opportunity—of becoming a vehicle for modernism. Such modernism expresses itself less in terms of musical language or mode of expression (although curious instances of both arrive from time to time) as in the way it is packaged and delivered to the public. As in the world of everyday commodities, novelty, whether spurious or genuine, trivial or meaningful, is the ever-present watchword. The recordings of music by Vivaldi reviewed here have in common a wish not merely to do familiar things well but in some way also to assert their individuality by introducing at least one less familiar feature. In many respects, this is a laudable aim, but, as we shall see, it can also prove perilous. Antonio Vivaldi: La Porta delle Muse (Accent acc24266, rec 2009, 62′) offers novelty of...