Concerto for 2 horns, strings & continuo in F, RV 539
Concerto for 2 oboes, strings & continuo in D minor, RV 535
Concerto for violin, cello, strings & continuo in A, RV 546
Concerto for oboe, bassoon, strings & continuo in G, RV 545
Concerto for 2 horns, strings & continuo in F, RV 538
Concerto for violin, cello, strings & continuo in B flat, RV 547
Concerto for 2 oboes, strings & continuo in A minor, RV 536

“My heart skipped a beat when [The Italian Job] from La Serenissima and Adrian Chandler landed on my desk, such was my enjoyment of their Gramophone Awards-shortlisted Vivaldi Four Seasons recording (AV2344). So to discover that with this all-Italian assortment of sinfonias and concertos they’ve actually topped their 2016 triumph – and apparently effortlessly – gives me no small amount of pleasure.” So said the reviewer of the Gramophone Award-winning release, and the Vivaldi specialists are set to triumph once again with Vivaldi x2, an astonishing medley of double concertos for hunting horns, oboes, bassoon, violin and cello. Emenating from Vivaldi’s pen the double concerto – a genre of which he all but cornered the market – resulted in some of the composer’s most colourful and exuberant works. In the hands of two-time Gramophone Award-winning La Serenissima, these concertos come to virtuosic and effervescent life.

The solo horns, oboes, bassoon, violin and cello of Adrian Chandler’s period-instrument band La Serenissima feature in Vivaldi x2, an astonishing medley of seven Vivaldi double-concertos, and one exceptional concerto for “con molti strumenti” which showcases all instrumentalists together. Virtuosic thrills abound in some of Vivaldi’s most colourful and exuberant works.

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Recorded 12 – 15 February 2018, Cedars Hall, Wells, Somerset, UK. Performed on period instruments - eg. violin - Martin Hilsden, UK, 1985, after anonymous c.1650; horn - copy of J. Leichambschneider, Vienna, c.1720