Concerto Conca for strings and continuo in B flat, RV 163
Concerto IX from La Cetra, Op. 9 for 2 violins, strings & continuo in B flat, RV 526
Concerto for bassoon, strings & continuo in a minor, RV 500
Concerto for sopranino recorder, strings & continuo in a minor, RV 445
Sonata for recorder, bassoon & continuo in a minor, RV 86
Concerto fragment for bassoon, strings & continuo in d minor, RV 482
Concerto fragment for sopranino recorder, strings & continuo in G, RV 312
Concerto X L’Amoroso from La Cetra (MS) for violin, strings & continuo

Who are these Gods, Emperors and Angels in the title of the latest virtuoso vehicle for Adrian Chandler and his dazzling period-instrument band La Serenissima? Vivaldi was connected to many Highnesses on the European continent, foremost among them the widely cultured Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV to whom Vivaldi dedicated his set of concertos titled La Cetra, meaning “The Lyre,” hence likening the emperor to the lyre-playing god Apollo. The theme continues with the oddly titled Concerto Conca or “Conch Concerto,” alluding to the use of the conch shell as a musical trumpet, heard in the work’s first movement, and as used by Triton, son of Neptune and Amphitrite, and by Neptune’s attendants. The Angels are undoubtedly Vivaldi’s virtuoso female students at the Ospedale della Pieta, one of which was described in a contemporary anonymous poem: “She plays the violin in such a way / that anyone hearing her is transported to Paradise / if indeed it is true that up there / the angels play like that.”

Chandler and his forces, delivering their eighth imaginative album for Avie, play like gods, emperors and angels indeed, further securing their exalted place in the realms of early music performance.