Jeannette Sorrell and her Baroque orchestra Apollo's Fire have performed Vivaldi's Four Seasons violin concertos before, with the same general outlook as is heard on this 2021 recording; Sorrell favors a high-drama approach, with maximal evocations of the program described in the sonnets that apparently accompanied the original work. In concert, Apollo's Fire uses such devices as pictures of scenes from the music mounted on stage, and Sorrell even acts out little details in the music. Although the members of Apollo's Fire ...
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Jeannette Sorrell and her Baroque orchestra Apollo's Fire have performed Vivaldi's Four Seasons violin concertos before, with the same general outlook as is heard on this 2021 recording; Sorrell favors a high-drama approach, with maximal evocations of the program described in the sonnets that apparently accompanied the original work. In concert, Apollo's Fire uses such devices as pictures of scenes from the music mounted on stage, and Sorrell even acts out little details in the music. Although the members of Apollo's Fire play period instruments, this is at heart an arch-Romantic approach that Arturo Toscanini would have loved, complete with added ornamentation in places. The 16 players of Apollo's Fire sound like a much larger group. It's entirely distinctive, and listener reactions will vary according to individual preference. In its favor, one might argue that it provides real excitement, nowhere more than in the program-concluding Trio Sonata in D minor, RV 63 ("La Folia"), in a truly foot-stomping...
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