Vivaldi: Cello Concertos; Sinfonias; Caldara: Sinfonias

Jean-Guihen Queyras (cello), Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin/Georg Kallweit, Harmonia Mund HMC 902095, ****

French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras’s first recorded foray into Vivaldi provides a more varied diet than you might expect. The actual cello concertos are interspersed with a sinfonia and a solo-less concerto by Vivaldi (the Ciaccona that ends the latter is particularly fine) as well two sinfonias from oratorios by his Venetian contemporary, Antonio Caldara. There’s also the Concerto for cello and bassoon, RV409, where Queyras’s soft-grained tone is strikingly partnered by the almost bleakly plaintive bassoon playing of Christian Beuse. The players of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin delight in the sharp cut and thrust that Vivaldi so often offers in theses works. The

disc’s only drawback is in the recording, which sometimes presents the solo cello in too close a focus. See url.ie/55ay