Why, oh why, do we need yet another recording of The Four Seasons? It would be one thing if there were anything interesting about this performance. Actually, I suppose there is something interesting, if not attractive: violinist Massimo Quarta is a willfully–no, make that perversely–idiosyncratic performer. If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “Gee, I wonder what it would sound like if the soloist were to stretch the tempos like taffy, while the conductor does his own generally square-time thing,” then Quarta’s your man. Otherwise, steer clear and head toward oh, I don’t know, a dozen other recordings that range from the solid (Mutter) to the bracingly rustic (the Biondi–on Virgin, an interpretation even more enjoyable than his earlier recording for Opus 111), let alone tens of acceptable if not exciting other versions.
Watch for between-the-lines warnings in the seemingly fawning (and uncredited) liner notes: “Quarta’s unique [see perverse, above] approach to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons brings his own personality to the fore [forget what the conductor might think of all this]. Rather than imitate a style such as Baroque performance practice [too much bother to research]…Quarta distills various musical elements that have been introduced over the centuries to portray Vivaldi’s dramatic imagery [though we would be at a complete loss to say what, beyond heavy rubato doled out in generous quantities].” The pairings have the same problem, though I highly doubt that anyone would be buying this disc for the other Op. 8 concertos. The sound is very good–this is one of Delos’ VR2 “discrete surround sound” recordings–but that’s irrelevant here.
