Rinaldo Alessandrini's VIVALDI/BACH: L'estro Armonico Out March 25 On Naïve

On March 25, Naïve Classiques will release VIVALDI/BACH, the latest from Rinaldo Alessandrini and his Concerto Italiano.

The album features keyboard arrangements of Vivaldi's first published concertos, L'estro armónico, Op. 3, and transcriptions in different instrumental scorings of J.S. Bach's Six concertos after L'estro armonico by Antonio Vivaldi. Rinaldo Alessandrini conducts and plays solo harpsichord on the program, joined by fellow harpsichordists Andrea Buccarella, Salvatore Carchiolo, and Ignazio Schifani, and organist Lorenzo Ghielmi.

The Opus 3, published by Vivaldi in 1711, vibrates with a poetic energy taken to the highest level of expressivity, embodied in the subtle and virtuosic exchanges between a string orchestra and four, two, then one solo violins. The stylistic principles developed in each piece were completely new and inspired for the time, the virtuosity intense, and the success considerable, rapidly reaching beyond the frontiers of La Serenissima. Which is how Bach, seven years younger than Vivaldi and drawn to the polyphonic dimension of these "multi-voiced" pieces, adapted several of them for organ and harpsichord.

Rinaldo Alessandrini alternates original concertos and adaptations in a juxtaposition entirely his own, honoring both composers with the vibrant playing of Concerto Italiano and the four Italian harpsichordists.

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
L'estro armonico Op. 3

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Six Concertos After L'estro armonico By Antonio Vivaldi

Lorenzo Ghielmi, organ [BWV 593, BWV 596]
Andrea Buccarella, Salvatore Carchiolo, Ignazio Schifani, harpsichords [BWV 1065]

Concerto Italiano
Stefano Barneschi, Boris Begelman, Elisa Citterio, Andrea Rognoni, violins
Ettore Belli, Stefano Marcocchi, violas
Marco Frezzato, cello
Luca Cola, double bass
Ugo di Giovanni, theorbo