As much as I’ve enjoyed other recent offerings by the Italian period instrument ensemble Sonatori, such as the brilliant Vivaldi Concerti Della Natura for Erato, this collection of theatre suites by Vivaldi’s contemporary Agostino Steffani is less appealing. While the music is certainly well performed, Steffani’s clearly commercial genre rarely transcends the pleasant. A dramatic roll of percussion, a fanfare of brass, a brief choral interlude, and even a wind machine occasionally interrupt the seemingly endless rote dance movements–not without charm but absolutely unessential.
Divox Antiqua’s sound is first rate. The notes are credited to the group, whose admiration for Steffani seems to be based primarily on sentiment. The notes begin, “‘Amor vien dal Destino’ or love comes from destiny …when we were young and rode our bicycles through Viale Steffani, none of us would have imagined that one day the person it was named for would become familiar to us, that we would know and perform his music–and quite passionately, too.” I guess you had to be there.
