By
Published: Wednesday, 22 January 2025 at 10:42 AM
Review: Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons (Théotime Langlois de Swarte)
Vivaldi
The Four Seasons; Violin Concerto in E major; Concerto for Strings and Solo Violin in G minor; Aria from Nulla in mundo pax sincera* etc; plus works by Lambranzi and Gentili
*Julie Roset (soprano); Orchestre Le Consort/Théotime Langlois de Swarte (violin)
Harmonia Mundi HMM902757.58 90 mins (2CD)
Clip: Vivaldi: Violin Concerto in E Major, RV 269 La primavera – I. Allegro
If your heart sinks at the thought of yet another recording of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, read on: this one is so compelling it will have you on the edge of your seat, as will the companion works on this exhilarating new album.
French violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte is one of the brightest young things on the early music scene today and here we’re treated to a triple helping of his versatile talents as he takes on the roles of soloist, arranger and director of the period-instrument ensemble Orchestre Le Consort.
We’re also treated to a ‘second’ Four Seasons: a sequence of Vivaldi’s other concertos, and concerto movements, compiled in a way that parallels the keys of the Quattro Stagioni, from the ‘Springtime’ of E major to the ‘Winter’ of F minor – a tonal progression which Swarte sees as a symbolic (and Proustian) reflection on the cycle of life.
Vivaldi may have been ordained as a priest but he was, above all, a man of the theatre – an impresario, opera composer and director – and Swarte’s readings spotlight the drama of his idiom, throwing musical contrasts into high relief. Gutsy orchestral playing gives way to airy ensembles; brooding recitative-like passages to lyrical instrumental arias; improvisatory solo riffs to vigorously rhythmic tuttis.
Throughout, the Orchestre Le Consort produces a sound of such transparency that details often-stifled in other performances emerge with glassy clarity – among them, the exquisitely wispy and inventive continuo realisations. The players’ mimetic abilities are also thrillingly theatrical: they summon up twittering birds, murmuring streams, buzzing insects, thunderous storms – and all the other images that Vivaldi sketches in the Seasons’ prefatory sonnets.
Above all, though, it’s Swarte’s solo playing (on a 1733 fiddle by Carlo Bergonzi) that steals the show: pliant, expressive, wild and virtuosic. Particularly admirable is his elastic, almost jazzy flexibility with the music: listen to his discreetly extemporised embellishments; his supple, stream-of-consciousness-like musings (Proustian, again!); and the fiery spontaneity of his solo violin narrations. He’s the Stéphane Grappelli of period performance.
As well as the concertos, this two-disc set includes the title aria from the Red Priest’s sacred motet Nulla in mundo pax sincera, its serene pastoral melody sung with enchanting candour by Julie Roset, whose dewy soprano has an ingenuous, choir-boy quality.
We also hear selections from Venetian composer-cum-ballet master Gregorio Lambranzi’s 1716 collection of romping theatrical dances, whose skeletal, single-staff melodies have been fleshed out for this world-premiere recording by Swarte and Vivaldi expert Oliver Fourés. Here courtly, there folksy, they’re the musical equivalent of Pietro Longhi’s genre paintings of Venetian masking and commedia-style cavorting. Théotime and his colleagues charm and entrance with playing by turns balletic, by turns acrobatic.
Finally, the players take their bow with a filigree Adagio from a Trio Sonata by Vivaldi’s fellow violinist, Giorgio Gentili – another unknown gem, and one of such vaporous beauty it will leave your sinking heart floating on clouds. Kate Bolton Porciatti