Presto Editor's Choice
April 2021

Sergio Azzolini (bassoon), l'Onda Armonica

Vivaldi: Bassoon Concerto, RV 497 in A minor
Vivaldi: Bassoon Concerto, RV 476 in C major
Vivaldi: Bassoon Concerto, RV 486 in F major
Vivaldi: Bassoon Concerto, RV 481 in D minor
Vivaldi: Bassoon Concerto, RV 467 in C major
Vivaldi: Bassoon Concerto, RV 489 in F major
Vivaldi: Bassoon Concerto, RV 479 in C major

The Italian bassoonist and his ensemble here give a renewed testimony of their unswerving commitment to this repertoire, with its virtuoso demands not just on the soloist, for whom the avant-garde Vivaldi exploits the whole range of pyrotechnical effects and expressive potential, but also on the orchestra, rounded out with woodwinds, theorbo, lute, guitar, harp, organ and harpsichord.

“I made this choice,” explains Sergio Azzolini, “after an intensive study of the Vivaldi scores preserved in the Dresden library, containing a whole series of compositions originally conceived just for a string ensemble - but highly coloured by the addition of a large number of wind instruments.”

This expanded ensemble gives the concertos a highly dramatic character, underlined by the bassoon in lyrical and elegiac passages just as much as in its moments of joyful brilliance. Sergio Azzolini has borrowed cadenzas from Vivaldi’s violin concertos (in RV 479, RV 486), yet while the bassoon’s extrovert energy sometimes bubbles over, bordering on frenzy (RV 489, RV 497), there are also meditative monologues (RV 479, for example), in this programme of surprising contrasts.

CD with 36-page booklet.

"It’s hard to imagine a more passionate advocate for these works than Sergio Azzolini, who brings fiendish agility to the fast movements and makes his instrument sigh and sing in the pathos-laden, operatic slow movements. He draws pert ensemble playing, too, from L’Onda Armonica who capture both the visceral and the delicate sides of Vivaldi’s musical personae." - BBC Music Magazine. June 2021.